The Secret of the Kingdom of God
Text: Mark 4:21-34
Core Idea: The secret of the Kingdom of God is that Jesus Christ is the Savior King who will grow the Kingdom with His power and wisdom, and that this Kingdom will grow bigger than we could ever imagine. Then let us continue to trust the King as we faithfully sow the seed.
INTRODUCTION
Good afternoon, Lighthouse. It’s so good to see many of you here. To those who are joining us online, we miss you; we hope to see you soon. But wherever you are, I pray that God will minister to you and breathe hope in your lives today. Now that the restriction has lifted, one of the things that Pastor Jane and I will focus on is visitation. If you’re comfortable with in-person meetings, we would love to eat with you, listen to you, encourage you, and pray for you. So, do expect one of us to reach out to you if we haven’t done so already. But of course, I encourage you to do this with one another as well. Open up your house, eat something yummy, and share your life with others because this is what it means to interlock our lives and be “built into a spiritual house” as 1 Pet. 2:5 says. I say this because building this church from bottom up will require intentional efforts and sacrifice from all of us. It’s true that COVID has forced us to take a step back – but it’s time to rebuild our community and we need every single one of you to make this possible. So, I encourage you, challenge you to start praying for this church and for yourselves that God will give you wisdom and willingness to be part of building this community. I pray that we will come to love one another as we envision this church to become the church that God desires us to be. All this to say, let’s establish that rhythm of doing life together – and that the pastors will take that initial step by reaching out to you.
We’re journeying through the Gospel of Mark. Last week, we looked at the Parable of the Sower which taught us that insight into truth is a matter of the heart – that the condition of our hearts helps or keeps us from perceiving and understanding the secret of the Kingdom of God. Jesus mentioned four different types of hearts represented by different soils – the hardened, indifferent heart; the rocky, shallow heart; the thorny, divided heart; and the good, humble heart. And of course, the only heart that truly perceives and understands the secret of the Kingdom of God is the last soil because it’s the only one that bears fruit.
Then it begs the question, “What is the secret of the Kingdom of God? What is so unique about this Kingdom?” Jesus is going to answer this through these three parables that we’re about to read – but before we do that, let’s quickly talk about what the Kingdom of God is. We first saw this phrase in chapter 1, verses 14-15, where it says, “Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ He said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’” This was the message that Jesus preached as He began His ministry. But so far, there hasn’t been any explanation of what the Kingdom of God was until now. Then what is the Kingdom of God? This is how Pastor David Platt defines it: “The Kingdom of God is the redemptive rule and reign of God in Jesus.” In other words, this is where God rules and reigns – it’s the world ordered around the powerful love of God. The word “redemptive” is important because it shows that God is redeeming a world that is full of evil, suffering, and sinners through Jesus Christ who gladly, willingly, humbly paid the price by His death on the cross – and that “whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). In other words, this deals with a subject that will determine our eternal destiny forever. I want you to pause and think about that – whether you embrace and enter this Kingdom or not will have an impact not only on your future but also the whole world for eternity. Then what is the secret of this Kingdom that we should know? How can we be part of this Kingdom? Let’s find out by turning our Bibles to Mark 4:21-34. Let me read this for us.
21 He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? 22 For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear. 24 Consider carefully what you hear,” He continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more. 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” 26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain – first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” 30 Again He said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.” 33 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when He was alone with His own disciples, He explained everything.
Amen. This is the Word of God for you today.
Let me share three secrets that Jesus unveils through these three parables:
SECRET #1: THE KING WILL NOT BE HIDDEN
SECRET #2: THE KINGDOM WILL GROW
SECRET #3: THE KINGDOM WILL GROW BIG
SECRET #1: THE KING WILL NOT BE HIDDEN
Let’s turn to verse 21. “He said to them, ‘Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand?’” Although many English translations including NIV put an indefinite article before the word “lamp,” the Greek text clearly uses the definite article, which means that it’s more proper to translate this verse this way: “Do you bring in the lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed?” The reason this is important is because Jesus wasn’t talking about any lamp; He was talking about the lamp – He was referring to Himself as the Light of the world. Jesus was basically saying, “I came to shine the light in the darkness. I came so that they might see. I am the King that you’ve been waiting for. Do you have ears to hear what I have to say?” Now, this metaphor was drawn from the common experience of the people of that day, whose homes were illuminated by lamps at night. Logically, no one lit a lamp and put it under a bowl or a bed – that would defeat the purpose of lighting the lamp. It’s obvious that the lamp would be put wherever the light would provide the most illumination. In other words, Jesus didn’t come to hide in a corner; He came that He may be made known and that those who believe in Him would receive the Kingdom.
That’s why He says it in verse 22, “For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.” Why would something be hidden if you want it to be disclosed? The hiding here isn’t like hide-and-seek where no one wants to be found; it’s more like an egg hunt that I play with my son. At home, we would take turns hiding the eggs and the other would look for it. Now, I can intentionally hide the eggs in places so that he will never be able to find them. But I don’t. I intentionally place them where he can find it – why? Because it brings me so much joy to see him so happy to find the eggs. In the same way, though the King’s identity has been hidden, God always meant it to be revealed to us, because He always knew that it would bring Him so much joy to see us so happy to know and receive this King. Just think about that image. Isn’t it incredible that He delights when we’re happy? He delights in us.
And this is why Jesus says in verse 23, “If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear. Consider carefully what you hear.” If I use that egg hunt example again – even if I place the egg in the middle of the living room, if my son refuses to look for it, he will never find it. Even if he sees it, because it’s laid out in the open, he wouldn’t care because that’s not what his heart desires. In other words, though the King is now revealed, it’s possible for us to miss Him if we don’t pay attention. We live in a world that prefers darkness to light – people want to dwell in the dark because they don’t want their sin and evil to be exposed. Even though Jesus came to shine light into our lives, we choose to ignore Him because it’s scary to be exposed, because we like the way things are – we don’t want to give up our control; we don’t want Jesus to sit on the throne of our lives. But friends, know that He is the King that we’ve all been waiting for – He’s a good King; compassionate, merciful, and gracious; just, mighty, and perfect; He will not enslave us but in Him, we’ll find freedom – in Him, we will be perfectly safe and unconditionally loved. He will not treat us like His enemies; He will embrace us as His family. Then let me ask you, “Are you listening to Him? Are you paying attention to His Word?”
Now, Jesus says something that seems kind of unrelated in verse 24, “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you – and even more. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” It sounds like He was saying that the standard we set for others will be used against us – and that the rich will get richer, and the poor will get poorer. What does this have to do with hearing the Word? It’s understandable if we read it this way, because other Gospels show that Jesus used these words to mean exactly that. But in Mark, the context helps us to see that Jesus used this truth to communicate something different. He was essentially saying, “When it comes to knowing me, you will get out of it what you put into it.” In other words, if you listen, you’ll receive more and more of Him. But if you ignore His Word, even what you have will be taken away and you’ll experience more and more darkness. So, if you’ve never read the Bible, never explored to know more, never put anything into discipleship or this community, you will get nothing out of it. If you come to the Word with suspicion, anger, and a rebellious heart, God will intensify those emotions – blinding you from seeing anything. But if you go deeper, if you hunger for more of His truth, He will keep on giving more of Himself. He will pour Himself on us.
The spiritually rich gets richer and the spiritually poor gets poorer – that’s what this is about, which is why the longer you faithfully walk with Jesus, the better it gets. Our faith will mature and our love for Him will grow and deepen. But the opposite is true as well: the longer you ignore Jesus, the harder it will be to pay attention to Him. This is why I’m inviting you to listen to Him right now, consider His truths right now because if you say, “I’ll seriously follow Jesus after my graduation, after I get a stable job, after I get married, after I have children, after the kids are out of the house, after I retire,” you may find your heart already hardened by then – your ears closed. Did you know that the word “Hear” comes up 10 times in chapter 4 alone? Then do you have ears to hear? I want to address especially the Christians: are you carefully considering what you hear? It’s easy for us to assume that we’re listening simply because we already understand – but we must continually check our hearts and lives so that we don’t stop listening to His Word. Brothers and sisters, how much time are you spending listening to His Word? Are you opening the Bible every day – meditating on it day and night? Are you coming to our Sunday service prepared to hear the Word? Are you praying that God will open your heart to hear and understand the truth? I don’t say this to guilt trip you; I say this because I don’t want you to remain in the dark. His light is shining on you – He desires to lead you and satisfy you. Brothers and sisters, the secret of God’s Kingdom is that Jesus is the King. This means that we’re meeting with the King right now – and this King is speaking to us. This is His Word to us – and this Word has the power to bear fruit and grow in ways far beyond what we can ever imagine if we’ll just listen. I pray that you’ll consider carefully what you hear so that you may receive life.
SECRET #2: THE KINGDOM WILL GROW
In verse 26, Jesus shares what seems like an ordinary story of how a farmer scatters seed and how that seed grows. What can we learn from this? Well, it’s important to notice something that is unnecessarily emphasized here – the fact that the farmer only does two things: he scatters seed, and sleeps and gets up night and day. Now, I said it’s unnecessarily emphasized because you don’t need this detail to make sense of the story, unless that is one of the main points of the story. Jesus wanted us to see that the farmer does nothing in the growth of the seed. His contribution to the harvest is that he scattered the seed and slept. And to reinforce this idea, Jesus said in verse 27 that the man didn’t know how the seed grew. He didn’t understand how it happened – and verse 28 says it happened, “All by itself” which is a Greek word “automate” (which is where we get the word “automatic”). In other words, “Automatically, the soil produced grain.” Using this image, Jesus was saying, “This is how the Kingdom of God grows. As the Word is planted, the Word will do miraculous work of bearing fruit all by itself.”
Then the application is that we must know our place. During COVID lockdown, our family planted pepper plants in our small backyard. We cleared the area, covered it with soil and fertilizer, watered them, and told my son that someday we would have yummy peppers to eat from. The next day, he went out only to be discouraged that there were no peppers. Of course, I had to teach him that it takes time – but I wonder if this is how we are with the Kingdom of God. Jesus teaches us that His Kingdom will grow through the Word that has been sown, and in accordance to His will – we cannot speed it up or slow it down. But because we’re so result-oriented, we want the Word to have an immediate, visible result in our lives, and we get disappointed when it doesn’t. We want the Word to fix our marriage problems right away; to give us wisdom and patience in dealing with our children right away; to quickly turn our sorrow into joy, emptiness with fullness, setbacks with success – but when the struggles continue, we question if God is really working in our lives. The problem is that when we feel this way, we get tempted to manipulate the results by doing something – to speed up God’s plans instead of learning to wait and pray. But Jesus reminds us that our job is done when we’ve planted the Word – everything else belongs to the Lord. He will grow the harvest – we don’t have to carry that weight on our shoulders. I should add a caution here because we could abuse this by becoming inactive – “I guess I don’t have to do anything; God’s going to do everything.” Of course not. It’s not that we don’t work hard; it’s that we work hard with Psalm 127:1 on our hearts: “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.” God must work if anything of eternal significance is to be done in and through us.
Then practically speaking, parents, we must realize that we can’t produce faith in our children; but we can pray for them. Brothers and sisters, we can’t argue or persuade anyone into the Kingdom of God; but we can faithfully share the gospel and love them. We can’t bring revival at our church; but we can certainly pray for it. Listen to the promise in Isaiah 55:10-11, “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the Sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.” Trust the work of God. The Word has power – and it will grow exactly according to His will. What does it mean to trust God? It means that we can sleep at night. The farmer is not up at night, anxiously wondering, worrying if the seed will grow – no, he’s able to sleep. Friends, trust that God is working in the ways that we may not see, in the ways only He can work, which means that we can sleep at night. We don’t have to be anxious. We can rest as we wait on Him with patience and confidence. Don’t underestimate the power of God. The harvest will come. Keep sowing that seed; He will make it grow – this is the secret of the Kingdom of God.
SECRET #3: THE KINGDOM WILL GROW BIG
Verse 31. A mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds, yet it explodes in growth, producing something completely out of proportion to itself. Now, this is an imagery from the OT that Jesus’ audience may have been familiar with. There are several passages that mention this image but let me just share one from Daniel 4 where Daniel interpreted the dream of King Nebuchadnezzar. “The tree you saw, which grew large and strong, with its top touching the sky, visible to the whole earth, with beautiful leaves and abundant fruit, providing food for all, giving shelter to the wild animals, and having nesting places in its branches for the birds – Your Majesty, you are that tree! You have become great and strong; your greatness has grown until it reaches the sky, and your dominion extends to distant parts of the earth” (Dan. 4:20-22). Here, Daniel explains that Nebuchadnezzar’s dream signified that he would become a mighty king and his empire would expand across the world. Now, Jesus picks up the same imagery and describes what the Kingdom of God will look like – that though it starts like a tiny little mustard seed, it will expand to fill the whole earth.
Now, the disciples must have thought, “How in the world are we going to accomplish this? There are only twelve of us here.” And Jesus would’ve said, “That’s the point: it’s impossible with you; but everything is possible with me. I will establish this. Out of you is going to come a Kingdom that will transform the world – and one day, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that I am the Lord. My Kingdom will come.” And that’s exactly what we see today. The disciples had no idea; they couldn’t have imagined; but after 2,000 years, countless people have been saved. The gospel is spreading all over the world, tearing down all barriers – culture, language, race, gender, age, social standing, political affiliation, personal conviction and ambition. People are becoming one in this Kingdom even at this moment. This is actually one of the reasons why I love going on short-term mission trips. I get to see the work of God all over the world. I get to see Christians in other countries loving God, persevering through their suffering, and faithfully serving the Lord. I remember when we sang, How Great is our God, on a rainy day in Cambodia with some students there. I remember praying earnestly for and with the pastors and the children in India. I remember the conversation I had with a worship leader in Kenya who so desperately said, “I can’t wait to be with the Lord because He promises that He will wipe away every tear from my eyes. There will be no more pain and suffering there.” This is a very small snippet of what the seed of the Kingdom of God is doing around the world. But hear this: that same seed is also sown in your hearts to bear fruit far beyond what you could ask or imagine. And He will work in and through us as individuals but also as a church to impact and transform our homes, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods, and the very city that we live in because He desires to see His Kingdom grow here as well.
Even as I say this, I wonder if some of you’re thinking, “But we’re only a few. We’re only a small church. We’re only six months old. What can we do?” And you’re absolutely right – we can’t do this but the Lord who works in and through us will accomplish this. My hope is not in me or other leaders here; not in our own wisdom, power, creativity, wealth, or influence; my hope is in the Lord who loved us and gave Himself for us, who is mighty to create the world but compassionate to intercede for us. So, I’m dreaming and praying that this church will truly shine in the darkness – that we would illuminate the hearts of the people to see the truth of God, to serve as a safe place for people to rest, but also to show the world the way to our ultimate Lighthouse, Jesus Christ. As we faithfully sow the seed – preaching the Word, talking about the Word, sharing the Word, living out the Word, obeying the Word, God will accomplish this in and through us. This seed is not just for us to enjoy; it’s for us to scatter. It wouldn’t make sense for a farmer to have the seed but keep it in his pocket – but unfortunately, this is the Christian life for many people. Brothers and sisters, you and I have the light that brings life in this dark world. Let’s not put that light under a bowl but let that light shine through us. I shared last week that the Lent season has started which means that Easter is just around the corner. And that’s also when we want to launch ALPHA which is a safe place for non-believers to come and learn about our faith. Then it might be the perfect time to pray for those in your life who may not know Christ yet and find opportunities to share the gospel and even invite them to our church. Now, before you say, “He/she won’t respond positively,” I invite you to pray – pray that God will bring opportunities and open their hearts. And who knows? He might do exactly that. The question is, “Are we ready to seize that opportunity when it comes?” This is the secret of the Kingdom of God: His Kingdom will grow big.
CONCLUSION
Lighthouse family, the secret of the Kingdom of God has been now revealed to us – and it says that Jesus Christ is the Savior King. You and I are redeemed in His death, and we will flourish under His reign. Revelation 11:15 says, “The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Messiah, and He will reign for ever and ever.” This is the Kingdom that He’s inviting us to be part of; this is the Kingdom that He is calling us to invite others to be part of. If we look back at the last two years, it could feel like COVID put a huge pause in our lives – a lot of things, a lot of plans being pushed back, delayed, rearranged, or even canceled completely. But not the work of the kingdom – not the power of the Word planted in our hearts. We will see people come to Christ in repentance and faith, and He will ultimately renew the heavens and the earth. Then let us continue to trust the King as we faithfully sow the seed.
Discussion questions
Read Mark 4:24-25. Are you carefully considering what you hear? Why is hearing important according to these verses? How devotedly do you study God’s Word to get the right perspective, to understand the main points, and to let the truth change your life? What are the obstacles that make this difficult in your life?
Read Mark 4:26-29. What is the focus of this parable and what are the implications for your life? (For example, how does the parable of the seeds emphasize God’s sovereignty yet also prevent us from being lazy?)
Read Mark 4:30-32. How is the parable of the mustard seed encouraging for those who work and pray for the growth of the Kingdom of God? With whom could we share the gospel this week?