Mark 4:26-29

Did you see it happen today? Did you notice? The kingdom of God grew today. The kingdom of God grew larger. The kingdom of God grew deeper. The kingdom of God gained influence in this world, and the kingdom of Satan took a hit. The kingdom of this world lost ground. Today, there are more people who believe in Jesus than there were yesterday. Former rebels against God have become sons and daughters of God, just in the past 24 hours.

Did you see it? Did you see it happen? Probably not. Most of us probably didn’t notice the growth of the kingdom of God in the past 24 hours. Maybe we weren’t looking in the right place at the right time. Maybe we didn’t know what we were seeing. Maybe we were actually witnessing the growth, but we didn’t recognize it as the growth of the kingdom. Maybe we heard someone say something in a conversation we were having, and didn’t realize that the light was going on, that the Spirit was convicting, that this person had either just become a Christian during that conversation, or that their relationship with Jesus had just moved to another level. Maybe we didn’t see the kingdom of God growing, because the kingdom of God grows so slowly. Kind of like watching corn grow, it’s hard to notice the growth when the growth comes so slowly. We watch for the kingdom to grow, but we don’t notice any changes, and we glance away, and lose interest.

But, just like watching corn grow, if we’re looking in the right place, and if we’re knowing what to watch for, and if we watch over a period of time, we will see it, we’ll notice, we’ll witness the growth of the Kingdom of God in this world. And yet, even if we watch carefully, and even if we notice, we don’t have a clue as to why the kingdom grows. How are things changing, what exactly is happening, how fast are things moving, and how much will they change? We don’t know. We can’t understand. And this is our reason for hope.

Jesus is in the middle of a series of attempts to describe the kingdom of God in puny human language. How do you bring the glories of the kingdom of God down into sin-infected words? Jesus works to communicate these huge truths to finite human beings by using parables to teach. The kingdom of heaven is like a sower sowing seed on different kinds of soil. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, that starts so small, but grows so big.

And, verse 26:

He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground.

The parable begins where the kingdom begins, with the sower scattering seed. The kingdom begins when Jesus comes. The kingdom is planted when the Word of God, made human, enters the world and begins to speak. From the birth of Jesus, to His miracles to His teaching, and finally to His death and resurrection, the seed has been planted in this world. Jesus has taken root and the Kingdom of God is growing.

But how and where and what form this Kingdom is taking, is beyond us. Verse 27:

Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.

Did you see the kingdom grow today? Did you see how people’s lives are being changed? If we did, we just saw the tiniest little flutter of growth, if we saw it at all. World-wide and right here, the kingdom of God is growing.

And we don’t know how it’s happening. We don’t understand what makes the kingdom grow. But sometimes, we talk like we know, and we act like we know, and we feel pretty good about how well we understand church and denomination and the business of growing the kingdom. We say things like, “The Holy Spirit is growing the Kingdom”, like we have a clue as to how the Holy Spirit works and acts and moves. And then, because we need something more tangible, more concrete to explain the growth of the kingdom of God, then we turn to the books and programs and plans to make the kingdom grow.

It makes sense, doesn’t it? It’s logical. If we have these combinations of programs, if we organize in this way, if we sing these kinds of songs, if we sing off of the screen, if we sing out of the songbook, then we’re doing the right things and the kingdom of God will grow. If we advertise, if we build a building, then we’re on the right track, and people will come to know Jesus. Especially, if we’re doing what Jesus tells us to do, if we’re going to our friends and neighbors, if we’re talking about Jesus, if we’re explaining the gospel to people who don’t know, then they will be saved and start coming to church, and the kingdom of God will have grown.

But the fact is, we don’t know how the kingdom of God grows. It’s not just a matter of putting the right combination of programs and buildings together. It’s not just a matter of saying the right words at the right time to the right person. The kingdom of God doesn’t grow on our building projects or programs or words. To our do-it-yourself minds, for us who are self-reliant, we’d like the kingdom of God to grow in a way that makes sense to us. Put 75 cents in the pop machine, get a coke. Build a building, start a program, get a new Christian. Wouldn’t that be nice.

But here’s the problem with that. If we know how the kingdom grows, if we know the ingredients, then it’s up to us to find those ingredients and put those ingredients into place. If it takes a building, then we’d better raise the money for the building so that the kingdom will grow. But what kind of building, and where do we build it, and how are we going to get the money for it, and what is it going to look like? And if the kingdom of God is hanging on our building, then we’d sure better get it right. And if it takes a program, then we’d better start recruiting, and anyone who says no to the program is saying no to the kingdom of God. And what is this program going to do, and will we do it well enough, and we’d better get it right, because the kingdom depends on us. And if it takes our words, if it takes our witness for someone to be saved, then we’d better be talking to anyone and everyone about Jesus and the gospel, or they’re going to go to hell. And we’d better make sure we explain the gospel clearly enough, and we’d better be sure to use the right words that will make them understand. And we’d better not fail, not with eternal suffering at stake, not when the kingdom of God depends on us.

And we feel the weight of this burden, and the burden is too heavy for us to carry. Now, we understand that there is nothing wrong with books and programs and plans. And for sure we need to be talking about Jesus with anyone and everyone around us. And building a building is sometimes a great idea. But what we do around here is not to build the kingdom of God. Nowhere in God’s word does He tell us to go and build His kingdom. The building, the programs, the classes, the activities, even the witnessing, these all happen BECAUSE the kingdom of God has grown. The kingdom of God has grown in our hearts, so we talk about it. The kingdom of God has grown on this location, so we have a building and facilities. The kingdom of God has grown bigger than us, so we share it with each other through the programs and committees in our church. We are doing these things because God is making us faithful.

And the kingdom of God doesn’t depend on us. Verse 28:

All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.

The kingdom grows, we grow, because the Holy Spirit is making us grow. And how He works, and the speed that works, and what He produces, that is totally up to Him. It’s beyond our ability to understand. We don’t know how or when He works, but we sure know THAT He works. We don’t know how or when the kingdom of God is growing, but we sure know THAT the kingdom of God is growing.

The kingdom grows. First the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel. The kingdom grows, and then builds on that growth, and then builds on that. Have you seen this happen in someone near you? Have you seen it happen in yourself? When Jesus took control of your life, when His death and resurrection started to have an effect on you, the growth began. Say, 10 years ago, God was working on this area of our life. He was working on language, or on time spent alone with Him, or on commitment to church activities, or on courage to talk about Jesus. That was then. Now, 10 years later, language or commitment or courage isn’t so much the issue anymore. Now, there are new areas that God is working on. Now, He’s applying the commitment or the courage or the service in new ways, sometimes more difficult, more challenging ways. He’s stretching us, making us grow. And 10 years from now, hopefully, He’ll be working on something else.

He does the same thing in churches and families and communities and even nations. The kingdom of God is growing. The Holy Spirit is producing fruit. You know the fruit that He’s growing. From Galatians 5:22-23:

the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

In our lives, in our church, in our communities, God is increasing our ability to love each other, to express that love through words and through actions. Or maybe He’s working on our gentleness, that we treat each other tenderly, caringly. And then, when He’s moved us to where He wants us, then He starts working on our patience. He calms us down and gives us the ability to give each other the benefit of the doubt, to wait for Him to work in our lives, or in the life of another. And when He’s moved us to the place where we have love and joy and peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control, then He cranks it up a notch, and our family and church and community start showing love and joy and peace in newer and deeper and more striking ways. And who knows what the Lord does in us and through us. Sometimes the love and kindness produces ministry to the poor and hurting. Sometimes love and kindness shows up in a health ministry to those with health concerns in our community. Sometimes, it means a church sponsors someone who wants to become a citizen of this country. But how and when this fruit shows up, that’s up to God. What form of love, and the timing of kindness, and the type of goodness, and the kind of faithfulness, we don’t know. But it comes, the fruit grows, the kingdom of God is built stronger and deeper and larger, by the Spirit.

Of course, there are ways for us to resist this growth. Try throwing a tarp over your garden and leave it there for a few days, and see how well things are growing then. There are ways for us to fight the growth of the kingdom. Fear is a very effective means of stunting growth. Being afraid of what God might do can keep us from joining in what He actually does. Selfishness keeps the growth focused on us, rather than out. We grow fat, and the world starves for God. But even our resistance isn’t enough to stop the growth. If we don’t want the kingdom of God to grow, then God will bring that growth somewhere else, because the kingdom of God grows, with or without us. The kingdom of God grows, through us, or in spite of us.

The kingdom of God grows until, verse 29:

As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

The grain is ripe at different times for each of us as individuals. God will cause love and joy to grow at different levels for each of us, and when He determines that we have grown as much as He decides, then, in one jump, we are made perfect. The grain is ripe, the kingdom of God has grown in us, and we then we go to be with Him. And when every human being has experienced the growth of the kingdom according to God’s plan, when every nation has grown to God’s expectation, then Jesus comes. This world, in a twinkling of an eye, is made perfect. The kingdom of God has fully bloomed. And we’re home.

The kingdom of God is growing. How? When? Where? We don’t know. But that it happens, that it’s happening now, this we know. It’s not up to us to make it happen. But it is up to us to let it happen. It’s ours to go along with it. It’s ours to allow God to make the kingdom grow in us. It’s ours to allow God to make the kingdom grow in our church. It’s ours to allow God to make the kingdom grow in our nation, in our world. The kingdom is growing. The harvest is coming. Let it grow.