Parable of the growing seed (Deer Creek)

James Rogers

Parables of Jesus (Deer Creek) 2023 • Sermon • Submitted 7 months ago • Presented 7 months ago

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Aim to look,learn and apply what we find in the parable of the growing seed

Notes

Transcript

Parables a teaching tool

We started into this series and discussed that over 30% of Jesus teaching was done in parables.

We looked at

Matthew 13:34 “34 All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable.”

and in Mark we can see

Mark 4:34 “34 and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.”

Parables were a huge teaching tool for Jesus and I think that is why you chose for us to study the parables.

Today we are in Mk4:26-29 the Parable of the growing seed.

Introduction

I think we may agree that we are living in a post-Christian era. Where Christ, His Church no longer has priority.

In this world man tries to serve himself and God and according to the word that is not possible

Matthew 6:24 “24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

This belief of trying to be in the world and of God can:

This brings confusion how can I live for Christ and live in the world too?

How can I be successful in the world and a servant for Christ?

We think “don’t i have the right to do anything I want to do?” and the answer is yes, we can, but does it make it right?

That makes me think of

1 Corinthians 10:23 “23 All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.”

Good explanation quote from C. Leonard Allen: “One of the chief characteristics of modern secular culture is the loss of this sense of connectedeness to the past. The spirit of individualness, rampant in our time, says: ‘You can be whatever you choose to be. Forget the past. Disregard its traditions. Dismiss its stories. Accept none of its constraints. Bear no responsibilities for its failures. For you are perfectly free to order your own life, to go your own way.”

From the first century people wondered if Jesus failed since did not return then. Were the believers believing in vain?

Today the world wonders the same thing adding to it

“If the kingdom of God is the most powerful force in the world, why are people not flocking to it?” “Why isn’t it growing more?”

This parable, brief as it is addresses that we are often impatient with the way God brings about growth. We think we know God’s way, God’s timing

Background information

This parable is only found in Gospel of Mark (Mk4:26-29)

This parable is in the midst of other similar parables

Parable of Sower

Parable of Mustard Seed

Similar to the ones found in Matthew-Chapter 13.

We can see that the parable of the sower and the parable of the growing seed go hand in hand with one another

Another good quote: A. B. Bruce “this parable is a pendant to the parable of the Sower, teaching that even in the case of the fourth type of hearers [those represented by the ‘good soil’] the production of fruit is a gradual process demanding time.”

So, let’s read the parable together make some observation then get more into how we can learn to live the parable

Mark 4:26–29 “26 And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; 27 and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. 28 “The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. 29 “But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.””

Q: Any general observation anyone wants to make on these verses?

Q: Who is the He, and who is He speaking to (may have to look back — - 4:1 answers the question- - - -

Explaining the text

Audience: We do not know for sure if to the crowd like parable of the Sower, or to the disciples.

Culture: Agrarian (agriculture) so this parable along with the Sower and Mustard Seed all would have great meaning to them. They would understand the process of sowing, and the patience needed until harvest.

Term to contemplate “earth yields crops by itself.” - Itself comes from Greek word “Automate)

Itself in this Greek word is only used here and in Acts 12:10

Acts 12:10 NASB95

10 When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.

The word means ‘self-acting.’ You can see that it is a word very similar to our word automatic. Jesus is stating the seed did what it was supposed to to, what it was expected to do. It was expected to grow. It was automatic.

Q: Does this make you think about the Christian, about you, are we expected to grow?

Q: Does that growth start on the outside where the world sees it, or on the inside, like under the ground (i.e. the seed)?

Q: Go back and look at the parable again, can you see any time frame that this would happen?

The text clearly shows that it is a process, it happens over time, but it does happen. From a single seed to in maturity ready to be harvested.

Purpose and application

Primary purpose is to show how the kingdom grows. Not with fanfare but often quietly, unnoticed, unobserved by others, but yet there is growth.

Another purpose: To the impatient (which we sure can be) is to be patient and wait for God to cause the growth. - Consider

1 Corinthians 3:6–7 “6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.”

May expand on these verses on what is my job, our job

Secondary purpose: The kingdom grows best when it does it gradually.

Foundation, soil matters, for good soil with the fertilized word will help the seed grow strong so to withstand the storms and the stories (false religions).

Mass baptisms were common in the early church, and can be today too. But if there is not a true rooting, understanding, grounding of the faith it may not withstand the things coming and can be easily deceived.

Womack in his commentary says: “it is a much healthier church that grows gradually, because it can develop the needed strength to remain faithful to Christ when the times are tough.”

The kingdom best grown when the growth is ordered

Seed is cast (v.26)

Then comes the blade

Then the head

Then the mature grain in the head.

The right order look at Jesus great commission the order

Matthew 28:19–20 “19 “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.””

What is the order?

Go make disciples (what does that entail?)

Baptizing them

Teaching them to observe (obey)

Assuring them

So, with the seed it needs to be planted (sowed); then it needs to germinate, it is watered, fertilized and God causes the growth. First the blade, head, and finally the mature grain.

Learning to live the parable

We need not be overly concerned about the growth when we properly sow a seed. Remember our part is not to grow the seed, but to plant the seed, God is the only one who can cause the seed to grow to maturity.

Again consider 1Cor3:6-8. and couple that with Act2:46.

Be Patient! Water and nurture the seed. and yes that includes us as heads of grain who still need the water of the word, the nurturing of others to help us to continue to grow to the mature grain. Allow others and ourselves room to grow. Don’t get discouraged!

Be assured the Kingdom will grow, that is God’s plan for it. Consider (have everyone turn there)

Galatians 6:7–9 “7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.”

Q: What do you learn about growth in these verses?

There will be a harvest

Do not lose heart or grow weary in doing good (sowing seed)!

Some Take Away

We can see the simplicity and the complexity of growth all from these few short verses. While there is a science, a pattern, an explanation there is still a mystery too.

See the mystery in

Mark 4:27 “27 and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know.”

We also see the progress, slow progress or gradualness of the growth. As the Sower goes to bed he does not worry about the seed, he knows the seed, has faith in the seed will accomplish its purpose. You cannot see the growth for most happened hidden in the ground, out of sight, until the blade pushes through.

Know there are stages of the growth, (seed, germination, blade, head, then mature grain.

It has to go through the stages, in the right order to produce the mature grain.

Christian growth is the same, we grow, it is a process, not an event.

Finally we need to have faith, faith in God and God’s word consider

Isaiah 55:11 “11 So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”