Well, good evening. I invite you to open up your Bibles to Mark chapter 4. That's found on page 998. I apologize up front. My voice is not well, so I hope I can project enough where you can understand and hear. but I trust that God will do the work in your hearts as we go into his word. Just a reminder, Mark's gospel is a quick-moving account of Jesus' life, ministry, particularly dealing with his healing and restoring and freeing ministry among people. But here we find ourselves this evening in one of the few passages in Mark's gospel that deal with Jesus' teaching ministry. And here we have this evening in chapter four, a select few of Jesus's parables and stories to help us understand his ministry, particularly the nature of his kingdom. So in these first 34 verses of Mark chapter four, Jesus taught about the nature of the kingdom, the very kingdom that he came to establish here on earth. So with that in mind, would you give your attention to this reading of God's word? May he teach us more about his kingdom. Starting in verse 26. 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 produced it by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts the sickle, because the harvest has come. And he said, what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed. which when is sown on the ground is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. 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 nest in its shade. With many such parables he spoke the words to them as they were able to hear it. When he did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples, he explained everything. This is the reading of God's word. Let's pray. Father, as my voice is weak, I pray that your voice would be made strong. Use the words that we've just read to understand the nature, the depth, the power, the majesty of your kingdom. And as we marvel at it, we are thankful that we can participate in it, and we are able to observe your good work. So do this, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Just got a question for you. Do you ever find yourself managing your own unmet expectations? We have these expectations about how life is going to go, and often our expectations are unmet. Whether it's the college that you choose, the school you go to, and you say, eh, it didn't work out quite how I planned. Maybe it's your marriage, or you had this great idea of what parenting would be like, and then the first child comes along, and you say, ooh, this is much different than I expected. Maybe it's your job. Whatever it might be, we find ourselves managing our unmet expectations. But what happens with the more that we understand, the more knowledge that we gain, the more realistic expectations we tend to have. And so the question before us this evening is, what are our expectations about the kingdom of God? In Jesus' day, there was a clear divide between what Jesus taught about the kingdom and what the religious leaders expected in the first century. They expected some type of maybe political revolution or some type of national resurrection, just bring Israel back up, put it on top. But what they got was a healer, and in this case, a storyteller. There was a clear divide between Jesus and the people. They saw their Messiah in a particular way, and yeah, they loved Jesus' healing ministry, but they wanted much more. It was different, much different than Jesus' teaching about the kingdom, how Jesus described the kingdom. And sometimes we get it confused as well. We can look back at our past, Thinking about how God's kingdom is being established in my own heart, in my own life. Maybe I look at my present situation, or maybe the situation of the church, where you say, yeah, God, you said your kingdom's gonna go forward, it's gonna advance, it's gonna expand, and yet, we hear time and time again of churches closing, fields stopping their ministry. Maybe even when we look back, we look out to the future and we think, man, if we keep going this direction, is there really a hope? And so what we need to do, despite all our experiences in the past, despite all our expectations about the kingdom, we need to look to how Jesus describes for us and gives us our expectations about the kingdom. So, what should your expectation of the kingdom of God be? Well, first, we'll see in this first parable, ordinary scattering leads to mysterious growth. Ordinary scattering leads to mysterious growth. This parable, this first parable that we've read here this evening, is unique to Mark's gospel. That is, we can't find this in the other synoptic gospels. We don't find this in the parallel gospels. And in this parable of the scattered seed, you'll notice at the end of verse 27, there was this ordinary sowing of seed, the scattering of seed. But then there's this mysterious growth that takes place. He begins with this parable, Jesus, the kingdom of God is like a farmer who scattered seed, cast seed on the earth, and when night comes, When the day is done, all he can do is go to bed and trust that the seed is doing its work in the ground. After a hard day of work and labor, he's completely left helpless to know what's going to happen. All he can do is wait. And so he gets up, works, goes back to bed at night, He doesn't know what's going on underneath the ground, and yet, the seed is doing its work. And in the end, he hopes that the seed will yield a harvest. The farmer lacks any control over the germination process and the growth of the plant. But then, as Jesus says, then there's this most imperceptible breakthrough. First, a single blade. And the more we discover about this world, the more we understand about seeds and soil. Science teaches us all kinds of things about it. But how a plant, somehow how a plant in this tiniest of seeds, the smallest of seeds, contains this great mystery of how this beautiful plant grows. This little seed that perceives to be dead is transformed into a fruit-bearing plant. Sure, this farmer can cover the seed with soil. He can do what needs to be done. He can water it, uproot the weeds. He can water it, fertilize it, and all kinds of things. All these things are important. But when causing the seed to sprout and grow, he has no control. All he can do is trust the one who created the seed that he'll cause it to grow. Trusts, he prays, and he waits patiently. And what Jesus says, this is the nature of the kingdom of God. As we're reminded in the first parable in the beginning of this chapter, the seed is the word of God. And as the word of God is spread, you can't do anything other than to spread the word. We can't make the word take root. We can't make and cause the word of God to reign in the life of a person. But that's where we manage our expectations. Sometimes we have these unrealistic expectations of how it's supposed to happen. We spread the word, we tell people about Jesus, we read the word ourselves, believing that there'll be this great harvest. Maybe even trying to produce a harvest on our own. But that's not the nature of what God says is the kingdom. We can't make the seed sprout. We can't cause belief in the life of a person. Interesting story, we were having dinner with the elders and wives just on Friday evening and Herb was telling me about his new job. as a pumpkin farmer. And I don't know if I should get my information from him. I probably should have took to an Anderson first. But one of the neat things he told me about the pumpkin seeds that they sell is that they have over a 90% success rate in the germination of their seeds. And from what he was telling me is that 75%-ish is the legal kind of standard, right? You want to have 75% rate, but theirs have 90% success rate when they're planted. And I think sometimes we have these unrealistic expectations, but that's how the kingdom of God works. that we expect the 90%. When we don't get the 90%, we get disappointed, frustrated, maybe even get angry. God, why aren't you doing your work? We don't understand why it is that when one person hears the gospel, and there can be somebody hearing the same message sitting next to them, One is converted and the other one remains indifferent, maybe even hostile to the truth. Why is it that one individual believes, one community is transformed, one family, one nation is transformed by the gospel and another is not? But that's the nature of the kingdom. It's mysterious. And the work of the seed is revealed over time. But that doesn't put us off the hook as God's people. We're called to scatter the seed and Paul uses the same imagery beautifully in 1 Corinthians where he says, I planted, Apollos watered, but most importantly, God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything but only God who gives growth. That's what Jesus is talking about here. It's the seed, the mysterious nature of the seed that does the work, the word of God. We're called to be faithful in spreading the seed. And this happens with us evangelizing the world, telling people about Jesus, but this also works in our own lives. As you continue to struggle against sin, keep implanting the seed in your own heart, Keep getting in the word, learning from it. Let God's word to do the work in your own life. And notice how mysterious this growth is, and how powerful the seed is. Look at verse 28. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. It's interesting, Jesus says, the earth produces it by itself. It's this meaning of automatically or without visible cause, or maybe even better, apart from any human help. What Jesus is saying, now that the seed is where it belongs, now it can do what it must do and when it must do it. Yes, the farmer waits and observes, very little perceptive changes when it sprouts. It's amazing how powerful the seed is. So it is with the kingdom of God. As Christians, we can be faithfully ministers or proclaimers of Jesus Christ, scattering the seed year after year, giving illustrations like Jesus did, inviting people, exhorting people, comforting people, urging people, talking with people. But at times it feels like our labor's in vain. But then all of a sudden, there's a sprout. There's a change in the hearts of people. So telling people about Jesus may feel like a fruitless task, but our job here is to just keep tossing, keep sowing, keep spreading, keep praying for the sprouts and the produce, because there's going to be a time when there's going to be a great harvest. So this is the message of the gospel. The power is in the message. Actually, the power is in the reality of the message. The power is in Jesus Christ and his spirit working. And the growth is often gradual and imperceptible, but as Jesus says here, it's inevitable. When God's word is planted, when it goes into the soft soil of the heart, it will do its work. And so the eyes aren't everything, but there's something going on underground, and this should bring great encouragement to us. You don't always see it the way God sees it, but the seed is powerful and it will bear fruit. And as Isaiah says, when God's word goes out, it does not return void. John Stott, pastor theologian, once said this. God has only commissioned us to preach the gospel to all nations. The results belong to him and they're mysterious. So let's move to the second parable. What should your expectation of the kingdom of God be? It's this, it will move from the minute or miniature to mighty, to the mighty and welcoming. This is a little parable or an illustration by way of contrast. I'm going to read it one more time. And he said, with what can we compare the kingdom of God or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when sown on the ground is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. Yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the other garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nest in its shade. So Jesus begins here with a question. What can we compare the kingdom of God to? Or what parable should I use? Now if I was to say that, I'd be using all my mental strength to muster up an illustration for you to understand. Just give me a minute and I'll come up with an illustration so I can explain this to you, but that's not what Jesus is saying here. Really what he's trying to do is raise interest, not because he lacked what to say, but he uses this rabbinic tradition, trying to draw interest and then the attention of the audience. And so as the crowd hones in on what Jesus says, the next words that came out of his mouth may have been underwhelming. The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. A tiny little seed. The smallest of seeds. The ones the birds love to eat. Seeds so small that a bird could swallow many of them at a time. But he says this small seed becomes the largest of garden plants. 10, 15 feet tall. And not only a garden plant, but a place where birds come. Birds that would often eat these seeds now find rest and shelter in its branches. And Jesus says this is what the kingdom of God is like. From the minute, the tiny, the insignificant beginnings, it grows into the mightiest of garden plants. This is the story of the Bible. Starts in the Old Testament. An obscure person, Abraham, called out of Ur. Pretty significant on the world scene, and yet God promises to make him a mighty nation. And the Israelites, an insignificant people, spent hundreds of years as slaves an insignificant people in a land conquered over and over again by foreign armies. And then you come here to the New Testament and the Jews think they're something special. We've never been slaves. And then they forgot their whole history. Insignificant. The history books aren't really filled with stories about the Israelites. And then we have this Jesus. born in a place called Nazareth? Bethlehem? Comes from Nazareth? Does anything good come from Nazareth? And then he has these faithful but few followers made up of fishermen and tax collectors and all kinds of insignificant people. And yet, within 40 years, of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The gospel spread through the known world, reaching the cultural center of the world in Rome. And churches were established. And it hasn't stopped since. The church is expanding, reaching the nations of the world, all of which we get to be a part of. people from every tribe and nation calling on the name of Jesus. And as insignificant as the world may think we are, God is growing it into a mighty plant, a magnificent plant. Not only is this small seed grows in this plant, it becomes this place of shelter where birds rest. In this picture, we have the hint of the grace of God to all people. The Old Testament uses this imagery occasionally, talking about the birds coming and nesting, the nations of the earth. I think this is a beautiful picture. The nations of the earth coming and finding rest in the God of Scripture. I'll give you a couple of passages if you want to look them up. Psalm 104 verse 12, Ezekiel 17, Daniel chapter 4. Just look these up. They're beautiful pictures of these trees where the birds of the world come and find rest. Out of the most insignificant beginnings, invisible to human eyes, God creates his mighty kingdom, which embraces the peoples of the world. which becomes a shelter to the nations of the world. And this kingdom will not be destroyed. Actually, it will thrive and expand. Great development from small beginnings. And so Christ's kingdom, no matter how much it's despised at first, how much people think it's insignificant in the eyes of people, is moving forward. And that's the story of the book of Revelation. God is victorious as there's a promise of wide and firm expansion. This will happen because this is God's kingdom. The nations and cultures attempt to overthrow this kingdom. Think about China. I can't remember, I didn't write it down, but what year did all the missionaries were sent out of China, and yet what happened? The kingdom of God continued and expanded. So what is your expectation about the kingdom of God? Do you really believe that God's kingdom will prosper? That it will prosper in your life? that it'll prosper in this world, that it'll expand, it'll be a mighty tree where all can find refuge. Do we believe that this little message of the gospel, the seed of the gospel, is powerful as we take it out and we proclaim it to people? Do we really think that it can transform lives, communities, nations? For the kings of this earth will say Jesus Christ is Lord. So as we conclude, what is your expectation about the kingdom? I just want to think, this is the way that my mind thinks, logically how Jesus goes through these parables starting at the beginning of Mark 4. The kingdom of God is like scattering the seed and it falls on different hearts, conditions of hearts. Some who receive it, some who reject it, some We're carried away by the cares of this world, but we're called to scatter the seed. And as we take the seed out, we're called to not take this light of the gospel and hide it under a basket, but to put it on a lampstand that all can see it. And when we scatter this seed, it grows mysteriously beyond our comprehension, beyond our abilities, But it grows in a powerful way in this tiny seed of the gospel. We could turn into this magnificent tree, a refuge for all peoples from all corners of the earth. This should be our realistic expectation of the kingdom of God. Amen? Let's pray. Our God and our Father, we thank you for this teaching, that your kingdom is advanced by your means through the spread of the gospel, the gospel seed. And Lord, we thank you that it's taken root in our lives, how you've transformed us through this message of grace. We pray as we take this message out that there would be a great influx in your kingdom. but not, Lord, to our glory, but to yours alone. In your name we pray, amen.