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THE PARABLES OF JESUS, #017
A Chronological Study
"To Him who opened His mouth in parables and
uttered things hidden since the creation of the world."
Psalm 78:2
"The Growing Seed"
The Mysteries of the Kingdom
Mark 4:26-29[1]
INTRODUCTION
Jesus and His Parables
[Mk 4:33-34] With many such parables He was speaking the Word to them, so far as they were able to hear it; and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.
In the last three lessons we were dealing with Jesus’ explanation of why He spoke in parables. We learned along the way that Jesus’ plan of action through these parables was to describe important kingdom details in such a way that those whom God had prepared to hear the meaning would hear it, and those whom God had not prepared would not hear it.
The Growing Seed
The Text:
[Mk 4:26-29]
And He was
saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and
he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how,
he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade,
then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he
immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
The
Kingdom of God
[Mk 4:26] And He was saying,
“The kingdom of God is like a man….”
Along the way in these
lessons, we are spreading out many different facets of “The Kingdom of God.’
Here we are once again confronted with The
Kingdom of God. “A logical starting point
is understanding the word itself. Within the word kingdom (Gk.
basilea), there
are three interrelated ideas which must be considered in establishing a
biblical concept of the term.[2]
I’ll summarize His meaning here.
First, there is
The Right to Rule
– The authority, sovereignty, dominion vested in a king.
Second there is
The Realm of Rule
– This is the
realm
in which ruling authority is exercised. This involves
the subjects
of the one in authority rather than the authority himself.
Thirdly, there is
The Reality of Rule
– the actual
exercise of royal authority.
A kingdom does not actually exist where there is no active exercise of that
royal authority. All three elements must be present to understand each use
of the word kingdom properly.
“There are two aspects of the kingdom as the word is used in the Bible and
we need to see that they are not self-contradictory. One might say there is
an
eternal
aspect as well as a
temporal
aspect; it has a
universal
nature as well as a
local
nature; or there is an
immediate
sense of the kingdom in which God rules directly, and a
mediated
sense of the kingdom in which God rules indirectly through appointed
representatives.”
[3]
This is probably a good time for some definitions!
Eternal
- the Kingdom of God outside of our time. All things physical exist in time.
God is a spiritual being. His Son was under the influence of time only while
He had physical existence here in time and space. It is expected that we,
like the angels, and the occasional visits here by the pre-existent Jesus,
when they took (take) on physical existence, will only be subject to time
when merging from the eternal state to enter the physical realm on a mission
from Almighty God - but our nature will always be eternal - as we were
created that way. So is the Kingdom of God. Where God rules in Eternity
(from Heaven in Eternity).
Temporal
- as in the explanation of Eternal, temporal has to do with the Kingdom of
God with its physical existence in time. Where God exercises His rule upon
the created universe, especially (to us) on the earth.
Universal
nature of the Kingdom of God - God's rule is absolute and absolutely
everywhere in both the eternal heavens and upon all of creation.
Local Rule
in the Kingdom of God - His absolute rule in any one specific place in His
creation - specifically, to us, upon the Earth.
Immediate rule
in the Kingdom of God - God enters physical creation and acts upon the
moment immediately. A clear example might be when Moses meets God in the
burning bush, or when Jesus, in His physical body, acting as God's righteous
servant, heals someone upon His Father's request.
Mediated Rule
- Kings, Queens, Presidents, Dictators, Police, anyone with authority only
rules by God's plan and program, and specifically His assigned approval.
While all these are under His supervision they also find themselves
responsible for their actions to be in line with His nature. All are free to
rule at His request, all are responsible for their rule.
And - The Heavenly Kingdom of God - God
almighty rules from His Kingdom in Eternity, outside of the created universe
and physical time. Whether He rules the Angels (and other spiritual beings
there) in the Spiritual realm or us and/or other created beings in the
created universe, the base of God's power is always in the Heavenly Kingdom
of God.
One more clarification: So that the question
of Jesus as a man VS. Jesus as God doesn't keep coming up... Jesus is
Almighty God. The Trinity does not divide God's being. Father, Son, Holy
Spirit are God (period.). The Kingdom of God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) is
like... a man who....
As we study the parables of Jesus we also need to see that many of them begin with, “The heavenly Kingdom of God is like a man,” in this particular parable I think you will come to the conclusion that this man is... just a man. In our most recent parables Jesus portrays His Position as King through the imagery of a farmer and his rule over his farm, what he does, and what is the result. We need to understand Jesus, His rule, and His results – as well as where in the program of God these are expressed. As we always say, “Context is everything!”
The Immediate Context
The Gospel writers present us with at least three
time
ingredients for
our context in these Kingdom parables. For simplicity we could call them Old
Testament, New Testament and the Future. Most of the Old Testament concerns
the establishment of the kingdom of Israel, most of the New Testament
concerns the establishment of the Body of Christ – The Church, and the third
element concerns the coming earthly Kingdom and Heavenly kingdoms. Our
parables often contain one, two or all of these understandings of the
Kingdom of God. The parables are given for our understanding of these things
so that we might know Him intimately.
The Kingdom of God, a Man, Seed,
and Soil
[Mk 4:26a]
“The
kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil;”
Our
first thought is about the Kingdom. Using the immediate context, we have
Jesus in Israel the covenanted Kingdom of God at that time on earth
(God is also sovereignly ruling over all of His kingdoms on earth). Jesus is
educating His disciples as to what is right about His covenanted Kingdom and
what is wrong with it.
We
learned in an earlier lesson (014 The Sower) that it is God, in that case
Jesus, who is the “farmer” who sows the seed, and that the seed is “the Word
of God,” and the soil, in that case, is the “good soil,” those who hear and
believe the Word of God (believers) as Jesus sows the Word of God to them.
We
should see that Jesus was making a specific statement to His disciples
concerning those who believe the Word of God.
The Man Does Not Know
[Mk 4:27]
and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day,
and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know.
It is always important to make sure that any text we
are trying to learn and understand does not contradict other scripture. All
scripture must agree with itself. We should see that, in this clause of the
verse, our sower of seed cannot be the Lord Jesus because it states here
that “he himself does not know” how the seed sprouts and grows. The man in
the parable is just an ordinary farmer man who rises early with the sun
rising and goes to bed early with the sun setting “and the seed sprouts and
grows – how… he himself does not know.
The Soil Produces Crops by Itself
[Mk 4:28]
The soil
produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature
grain in the head.
So, in this parable Jesus is making the connection
between soil and the seed. The soil, the believer, receives the seed, the
Word of God, and it grows according to a normal plan. One source says that
wheat planted in the spring will take about 4 months to get to maturity, and
if planted in the fall will take about 8 months to mature because of winter
dormancy. The last stage of growth is the development and maturity of the
grain head where the seed ripens.
We see that there is a relationship between God’s
plan for the wheat and His plan for believers follows a path together:
[Genesis 1:11-12]
Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation,
plants yielding seed, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit after their
kind with seed in them”; and it was so. 12 The earth brought forth
vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit
with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.”
