Sermon: Parables of the Kingdom (Mark 4:21-34)

Parables of the Kingdom
Sunday, June 18^th, 2023
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA

Mark 4:21-34

²¹ And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? and not to be set on a candlestick? ²² For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad. ²³ If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. ²⁴ And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. ²⁵ For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.

²⁶ And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; ²⁷ And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. ²⁸ For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. ²⁹ But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

³⁰ And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? ³¹ It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: ³² But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it. ³³ And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. ³⁴ But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.

Prayer

Father, we thank you for Mark’s gospel. We thank you for the revelation of the kingdom that you have given unto us. And we ask for the Spirit of Illumination to be given unto us now as we seek to understand what we hear, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Introduction

Last week we encountered the very first parable in Mark’s gospel, “The Parable of the Seeds or Soils,” and this morning we have four more parables to try to figure out. We remember Jesus said that if we do not understand that first parable then we will not understand any of the others, so here now we get to practice our interpretative skills and see if we can grasp the mystery of the kingdom. If you are someone who likes a good riddle, here are four riddles to interpret.

Outline

• In verses 21-23 we have the Parable of the Candle/Lamp
• In verses 24-25 we have the Parable of Measurement
• In verses 26-29 we have the Parable of the Growing Seed
• In verses 30-32 we have the Parable of the Mustard Seed

Verses 21-23 – The Parable of the Candle

²¹ And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? And not to be set on a candlestick? ²² For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad. ²³ If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.

• There’s some ambiguity here about who the “them” is that Jesus is talking to. It is possible this is still just the disciples in private but based on how this section ends in verse 34 (there the “them” refers to the crowds), it is likely that Mark is just jumping back now to that public teaching time where no explanation of the parables is given. Whatever the case, we are now left on our own (together with the Holy Spirit) to figure out what these four parables mean.
• What we do know already is that these are all parables about the kingdom of God. And we should also know that based on how Jesus interpreted the parable of the soils, there is not necessarily always a 1-1 connection between the sign and the thing signified. Sometimes a sign (like seed, or a Sower, or a light) can have multiple significations.
  • For example, in the Parable of the Soils, the seed which is sown refers both to the Word and to the People sown. So seed can represent both God’s Word, The Gospel, the message of the Kingdom and the different kinds of People who respond to that message, all in the same parable.
  • One of the best rules for interpreting a sign or symbol is to first see how the rest of Scripture uses and interprets that symbol.
• So in our parable here, we might first ask, what does a candle or a lamp represent in the rest of Holy Scripture? Where do we see these objects?
  • We know at the most basic level that a lamp is a light in the darkness, and this should call to mind the creation of light in Genesis 1, or the creation of the stars on Day 4 to give light to the earth.
  • We know from Exodus that there were lamps and lampstands inside of the tabernacle and temple which are themselves symbolic.
  • Revelation 1:20 says, “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.”
    • If you continue reading Revelation, you’ll learn that these seven stars which are angels are the pastors or bishops of the seven churches.
    • So lights are stars, stars are angels, angels are pastors or preachers of the Word.
  • And in Psalm 119:105 it says, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, And a light unto my path.”
  • We read also in 2 Samuel 22:29 that David says, “For thou art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness.”
  • We read in Proverb 13:9 that “The light of the righteous rejoiceth: But the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.” There the lamp refers to the light of the mind or spirit or intellectual life which men have.
  • In Isaiah 62:1-2 it says, “For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, Until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, And the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, And all kings thy glory.”
• So what is a lamp in Holy Scripture? A lamp can refer to God, to God’s Word, to pastors who preach that Word, to the light of the intellect/mind, or to salvation and righteousness. That is the symbolic package that is a lamp or candle in the Bible.
• So when Jesus says, “Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed? And not to be set on a candlestick?” there’s a good chance that the candle refers to one or all of those things. And to have all of those verses that I just read to you in your mind when you hear candle or lamp, is part of how you get ears to hear.
• So what is the candle in this parable?
  • Well first and foremost I believe it refers to Jesus and his teaching.
  • This is somewhat obscured in English translations, but the sense of the Greek text here is that the candle comes or cometh (ἔρχεται), which is a really odd way of describing the arrival of a candle. A more literal translation might be, “Does a lamp come that it might be put under a bushel?”
  • Well usually lamps don’t come on their own, and the implication here is that this coming is the coming of a person, namely the coming of Christ who is the light of world.
    • Listen to how John describes Jesus in the beginning of his gospel, “In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.”
  • Now if we think back to all of those Old Testament examples of what a lamp is, we see that all of them fit here. The coming of Jesus is the coming of God, it is the incarnation of the Word, it is the arrival of salvation and righteousness and life for men. All those things that a lamp is in the Old Testament, Jesus comes and brings in Himself.
  • We might also say that more specifically in this context, the candle refers especially to the words Jesus speaks. These parables, like Jesus divine identity, is hidden to some but revealed to others. It all depends on if they have ears to hear and eyes to see.
• Now if the candle is Jesus and his teaching, then what might the bushel and the bed refer to?
  • We don’t know for sure, but it’s likely these things that have the potential to cover or smother the light, refer to his eventual death.
  • Jesus says in John 3:19, “And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”
  • So the lamp comes and is meant to be set on a candlestick (to have central place amongst God’s people in the temple or the church), but because men hate the light, they will try to put it under a basket or a bed. They crucify the light, they try to silence his teaching, and they persecute all who proclaim that light. This is the bushel and bed.
• Jesus then concludes this parable by saying, “For there is nothing hid, which shall not be manifested; neither was any thing kept secret, but that it should come abroad. ²³ If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.”
  • So both the concealed identity of Jesus and the concealed truth of his teaching is going to be made manifest. The mystery of the kingdom that is presently hidden is going to be revealed, and that is what the 27 books of the New Testament are. They are the revelation of the kingdom of God. They are the hidden and secret things made manifest.
• Now in verses 24-25, Jesus gives another parable about understanding this revelation.

Verse 24-25 – Parable of Measurement

 ²⁴ And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given. ²⁵ For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.

• This is a more straight-forward parable and is something we might expect to find in a book like Proverbs. It’s a wise aphorism about how the world works. In our day we might say, “the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.”
• The principle here is that if you are generous in your measuring out of what you give to others, then God will be generous to you. But if you are stingy or deceitful in your measuring, then you are going to get back the same.
  • As Paul says in Gal. 6:7, “God is not mocked, a man reaps what he sows.”
  • Or again in 2 Cor. 9:6, “He which soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall also reap bountifully.” So there is a principle here of divine reciprocity.
• The analogy then that Jesus is making is between what happens in the marketplace with material things, and what happens internally when people hear spiritual things.
  • The one that already has faith and knowledge and love for God is going to be given even more by these parables. But the one who lacks faith, and has no interest in the things of God, is only going to be made worse by hearing them. Their heart is hard, and therefore Jesus says, “even what little he has will be taken from him.”
• Just as there is often a growing economic inequality between the haves and the have nots, so also there is a growing spiritual inequality. This is what the truth does when it comes into the world. The people who love truth, find it and are given more. And the people who hate the truth, reject it, and lose what little they had.
• This parable is another way of saying that you get out of the Word what you bring to it. You get out of the worship service and the sermon what you bring to it. If you come hungry and thankful and zealous to know and praise God, then this service will be of great benefit to you. But if you come skeptical, and selfish, and resistant to obey God’s Word, then you might as well go somewhere else. Charles Spurgeon once said, “the same sun that melts wax hardens the clay.”
• So what are you? Wax that desires to be molded and conformed to the image of Christ? Or hardened clay, without the moisture of grace.
• To those who have, more will be given. And to those who have not, even what little they have will be taken from them.

Verses 26-29 – The Parable of the Growing Seed

²⁶ And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; ²⁷ And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. ²⁸ For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. ²⁹ But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

• We might think of this parable as an extension of Jesus’ first parable on the different seeds/soils, except that here we focus in on the good seed and how it grows.
• The word is planted in the hearts of men, the human Preacher or Sower of the word does not really know how it grows. He preaches, he goes to sleep, gets up the next day, and over time, “the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself.”
• The Greek adjective here is αὐτομάτη, from whence we get our English word “automatic.” And it refers to something that happens without any visible cause, or by itself.
• The Apostle Paul reflects on this reality in 1 Corinthians 3:5-7 where he says, “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? ⁶ I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. ⁷ So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.”
• The mystery of the kingdom is that God is the invisible cause of the kingdom’s growth.Just as a farmer plants seed by faith, so also should Jesus’ disciples proclaim the word.
• We cannot see down into the soil of men’s hearts, but we can see and judge the fruit of their lives, “first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.” And when that fruit comes forth, then the sickle goes in, the harvest of souls has come.
• In the Hebrew calendar there are multiple harvest festivals.
  • There is the first fruits offering after Passover in early spring.
  • There is the feast of Pentecost 50 days later.
  • And then there is the great feast of ingathering or tabernacles in the Fall.
  • And what all these harvests signify to one extant or another is the judgment of our works, the examination of what is growing in our lives, and the separation of wheat from the chaff.
• And so the sense of this parable is that God’s kingdom grows in a hidden and invisible way, but it is growing towards a very visible and glorious end—the great harvest festival of final judgment.
• Just as the Hebrew calendar has many mini harvests throughout the year, so also the Christian life is marked by God’s pruning and harvesting of our fruit along the way. Every Lord’s Day is a miniature harvest where we are gathered in, judged by God’s Word, pruned, and sent back out to bear more fruit. And eventually all of us, good and bad, are going to be gathered in at death, and stand before the Lord to give account for our works. And so we should treat every Lord’s Day as preparation for that final Day of the Lord. Harvest is coming, so take heed how you hear.

Verses 30-32 – The Parable of the Mustard Seed

³⁰ And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what comparison shall we compare it? ³¹ It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: ³² But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.

• Of all the possible trees Jesus could have used to describe the kingdom of God, it is surprising that he chooses a mustard tree. Why does he do this?

There are few reasons:

• First, because the mustard seed was for them, the smallest of all seeds. You can see it if you look closely but it would not stand out to you as significant. And this is the way God sows his kingdom in the earth.
  • Isaiah prophesied that when the Christ comes, “he shall grow up before the LORD as a tender plant, And as a root out of a dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him” (Is. 53:3).
  • Nobody looks at a mustard seed and says “wow, that’s a beautiful and impressive seed, I want that.” But that is how God chose to enter this world and plant His kingdom. And church history is the story of that little mustard seed growing into something “greater than all herbs.”
  • What began with Jesus and the Twelve, grows to 120 disciples at Pentecost, then 3,000 and then 5,000, and now there are 2.2 billion professing Christians on planet earth.
• And this brings us to what I think is the second reason Jesus chose the mustard tree, and that is that: the mustard tree is very unlike the other great trees of the earth. And Jesus wants us to know that His kingdom is of a different species than the kingdoms of men.
  • He says explicitly to Pontius Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
  • In both Ezekiel and Daniel, kingdoms like Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt are likened to tall trees that stretch to the heavens, or like great cedars of Lebanon. Earthly kingdoms have an impressive and visible greatness that makes people stand back in awe because you can see its size.
  • But the mustard tree, even when it is fully grown is only about 10 feet tall. And it does not have the same imposing and visible presence that a great cedar or redwood has.
  • If anything, the mustard tree had a reputation for being a dangerous and invasive species.
    • Listen to what Pliny the Elder (a Roman scientist who lived in the time of Christ, AD 23-79) says about the mustard tree:
    • “It grows entirely wild, though it is improved by being transplanted; but on the other hand when it has once been sown it is scarcely possible to get the place free of it, as the seed when it falls germinates at once.” (Nat. 19.170-171)
  • When we look at the history of Christ’s kingdom for the last 2,000 years, it has grown very much like a mustard seed. It has been transplanted in many a foreign soil, and it has been hard to uproot.
  • Consider the fact that we are all living here in Centralia, some 7,000 miles from where that mustard seed was first planted in Jerusalem, and yet we are the kingdom. Here it is. It’s the Word of God and the reign of God in the people of God.
  • It is truly a kingdom, it is truly a great tree, but it is truly unlike every other tree and every other kingdom on earth.
• There are of course more details in this parable we could study and meditate upon, like the nature of mustard and its strong flavor, or the meaning of the birds which lodge in the shadow of the tree, but I will leave that for you to ponder on your own.

Conclusion

Jesus says in John 12:24 that “unless a seed dies it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much.” What is hidden but implied in all of these parables is that in order for the kingdom to grow, something must die. Someone must die. And it is through death and resurrection that God’s kingdom multiplies on earth.

• In 1 Cor. 15:20, Paul calls Jesus the first fruits of the harvest, and if Jesus is the first fruits, then there is a death and resurrection that awaits all of us well. And it is towards that final harvest that all of us should look in hope.
• In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.