Perspective on the Kingdom, Pt. 1
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We live in a fast-moving world. We want instant answers, same-day delivery, and quick dinners. In fact, we’ve gotten so used to fast results, that waiting on anything feels like something’s gone wrong! But Pastor Nick Gatzke reveals why God’s kingdom doesn’t run on our timetable and why that’s actually good news.
Please pray with me. Father in heaven, we pray that you would bless the reading and the preaching of your most holy word, that you continue to conform us into the likeness of your son, that you would encourage us by your spirit, that you would give us a deeper love for your kingdom and the things of your kingdom, and most importantly, for the king himself. In Jesus’ name, amen. In 1913, 412 million people lived under the reign of the British Empire. That was 23% of the world’s population at the time. It remains the largest physical empire in human history. And at the peak of its power in 1920, the British Empire covered an astonishing… 13.71 million square miles. That’s close to one quarter of the world’s land area.
At its height, it was described as the empire on which the sun never sets. But of course, the sun did finally set. And today, Britannia no longer rules the waves. and its remnants consists of 13 small, dependent, and unincorporated territories scattered across the world, such as the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar. The Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries is recognized as being the largest contiguous land empire in history. It, of course, originated in Mongolia, but it at one time stretched all the way from Eastern Europe to the Sea of Japan, extending into the Indian subcontinent in the Middle East, covering 9.27 million square miles. Our world has seen some massive kingdoms.
And it begs the question, When you think about the nature of kingdoms and empires, what are your expectations for the kingdom of God? In the gospel of Mark, as we’ve been seeing, Jesus has come and he has announced the coming of the kingdom of God. Remember, this is not yet a physical kingdom. The kingdom of God is present where the rule and the reign of Jesus is found in the lives of those who follow him. This is a spiritual kingdom that will one day become a physical kingdom.
But how? When? What should we expect? I mean, it’s been 2,000 years since Jesus announced the coming of this kingdom. We’re still working. We’re still waiting. We’re still celebrating. We’re still striving. And it would seem as if our expectations about the kingdom will help us to live in it and to live for the king all the more. And it’s with that reality, the expectations of the kingdom. that Jesus gives us three parables about this kingdom in Mark 4:21-34. And so I want to ask you to turn with me, Mark 4:21-34. The words will be on the screen behind me, or you could use that pew Bible in front of you or the Bible that you brought with you. And we see three parables to help us understand the kingdom of God. This is what it says in verse 21. “Jesus said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.’ And he said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.
For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.’” 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 produces 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 in the sickle, because the harvest has come.” And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God? Or what parable should 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 garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” “With many such parables, he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it.
He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his very own disciples, he explained everything.” Wrong expectations, wrong perspectives can distort our understanding of the kingdom and our place in it because things are not as they seem. What you see is not all that is happening. With wrong expectations, we can be confused or discouraged, but Jesus gives us these parables, not for our discouragement, but for our encouragement. And the first of the parables answers the question, how will the kingdom grow? And he gives the parable of the lamp and the lampstand. In the ancient world, lamps were made out of clay and were set in a dish of oil with a wick, that went right down the middle. The wick would suck up the oil, the oil would burn for fuel, and the flame would light the room. And for the best results, it doesn’t take a genius to know that lamps were positioned in high places, so it would throw the light broadly across the room. Lamps that were placed near the floor did not illuminate the whole room, nor did lamps that were covered illuminate the room, but rather gave off just a dull glow. But the lamps that were lifted high, positioned clearly, were the ones that gave the greatest light.
And in the parable, Jesus compares himself to the light on the lamp and the disciples as the ones who are positioning it. It is their responsibility to place the lamp on the stand, to make the light known for all to see, or more clearly, to show the world the king. This is how the kingdom grows, by putting the king on display for all to see. This is not a normal kingdom.
It does not grow through conventional means. The kingdom of God doesn’t grow when people are conquered by military force. It doesn’t grow through financial leverage. The kingdom does not grow through multinational treaties nor through the marriages of one royal family to the member of another royal family. The kingdom of God grows as people see the king. Jesus, the king, is the light, to be magnified on the lampstand. He was introduced as such at the beginning of the gospel of John. You might remember it. It says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
And this king, this light is beautiful and compelling and irresistibly attractive. Continuing in John 1:14, it says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” And Colossians 1 describes this light, this king, as being “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” The kingdom grows when people see the king, is not difficult to comprehend. It is a two-part thrust and application.
The first, very clearly, when you look at verses 23 and 24, pay attention to what you hear. We talked about that just a few weeks ago in the first part of Mark 4. Pay attention to how and what you hear. And secondly, we see… application of placing the lamp on the lampstand. This is the thrust of evangelism. All of the followers of the king have the opportunity and the responsibility to put the light on the stand to make the king known. Now, many of us struggle in this area, and you’ve heard me say it probably before, and I’ll say it again. I think there are a lot of different reasons why we struggle. There’s probably three main reasons in our time today, in our culture today, why many of us struggle in our evangelism, struggle to make the king known. The first is that I hear from a lot of people is they just don’t know what to say. I don’t want to screw it up. I want to represent King Jesus. I want to make him known. I don’t know how to say it. And that’s why over this past year, we’ve done a church-wide training called Learn the Gospel. Not only so you can learn the gospel for yourself, but also so you can know how to communicate the gospel to somebody else. And there’s a refresher on that train that’s happening right now in adult Sunday school and Sunday mornings if you want to hop in.
Secondly, I think that there are a lot of people that don’t functionally believe in hell. And when you believe in hell, there is a motivation for heaven. This last week or week and a half ago, Gallup came out with a very interesting poll about the beliefs of Americans, about the five major spiritual entities, God, angels, demons, the devil, heaven and hell. And what we see in the poll is not surprising. It reflects our culture that the beliefs of these entities have continued to edge lower and lower and lower to really new all-time lows. For example, Among 18 to 34-year-olds, 59% of people believe in God, while only 49% believe in the devil. 55% of 18 to 34-year-olds believe in heaven, but 52 believe in hell.
When you change the age bracket, the numbers go up, but the disparity is even more sharp. For example, among those 55 years old and older, 75% of Americans believe in heaven, but only 64% believe in hell. It’s interesting. Of course, a higher number believe in heaven, which makes sense as they’re nearing the day of their own mortality. But the disparity of 11% of heaven and hell is concerning. There are a lot of people who conversely say they believe in heaven and hell, but they don’t function like they actually do. And that’s maybe even where some of us are.
But the Bible is very clear. The kingdoms of the world and the priorities of the world and placing yourself on the throne of your own life and continuing to live in the sin that we have will lead us to a tormenting hell apart from God forever, because of our sin. But the kingdom of God will lead us to an everlasting heaven with God because of the forgiveness and grace that Jesus offers us. And this compels us the fear of hell and the glories of the kingdom to make the king known. I think the third reason why we don’t often evangelize today is that for many of us, we just have begun to believe the cultural lie that polite, good citizens don’t talk about politics or religion in mixed company. That’s for those cantankerous types. But if you want to be an upstanding type, you don’t talk about these things in polite company. And at the core, that is really a reflection or a fear. of your personal reputation. And yet, if the king is beautiful and glorious and compelling, we need to overcome our personal fear to make him known.
Verse 22 says, “Nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor anything secret except to come to the light.” Jesus was hidden in order to be revealed. He was concealed in order to be disclosed. The kingdom grows. as those who are his followers show people the king. This is God’s way. God’s kingdom will grow in God’s way. The second parable is about the cause of growth in the kingdom.
Have you ever been frustrated that it doesn’t seem like the kingdom of God is growing fast enough? I mean, if God is so great, then why isn’t there an immediate response every time I make him known? If the king is known and people are confronted with the reality of their sin and the love and generosity of God in his grace and forgiveness, then why don’t people respond? Every single time.
Well, the answer that the parable gives is the cause of kingdom growth happens in God’s time. Verse 26, “The kingdom 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 parable is in some way a lesson about what we can do and what we can’t do.
It’s a lesson for those who sow the seeds of the gospel. It’s a lesson for Christians. The ones who aren’t part of the kingdom don’t care about this because it’s not their job to sow the seeds of the king, of the gospel, of God’s word. But for those who follow Jesus as their king, some perspective is needed. So what can we do? Well, those who participate in the expansion of God’s kingdom have a tremendous role. They scatter the seeds of God’s word on the ground. They place the lamp high in the room for all to see. They make the king known and they make his word known. They spread the seed of the word, which Jesus says earlier in chapter four, falls on different types of soils of the heart. And that for the seed that falls on fertile soil of the heart, something amazing happens.
It sprouts and it grows. And this is the mystery of the expanding kingdom. This is what we can do. This is what we’re called. This is what we must do. There’s too much at stake not to do it. If we don’t do it, then we clearly haven’t understood the nature of the king himself or the kingdom itself. We love people too much not to do it. We find Christ too valuable not to do it. We can be sowers of the seed.
Charles Spurgeon once wrote, the farm never brings forth a harvest without sowing. Weeds will grow without our help. but not so with wheat and barley. The human heart is so depraved that it will naturally bring forth evil in abundance. And Satan is quite sure not to let it lie without a sowing of evil seed. But if ever a man’s soul is to yield fruit unto God, the seed of truth must be cast into it from outside of it. That’s what we can do. What we cannot do?
Well, we can provide an environment, the right conditions for growth, loving people, solid priorities, opportunity, regular exposure to God’s word. We can give ingredients, the spiritual equivalent to the sun and the rain that theoretically should make a seed sprout up and grow. But can we actually make the seed grow? No. Do we really understand all the minute and individual mechanics that become causal in a person’s heart? I mean, think about what happens in the regeneration of just one person in their life with all of their unique circumstances and personality. Can we give somebody a vision for God and a hearing of his word and cause spiritual blinders to be removed and ears to be unplugged? Can we impose conviction of sin on somebody and contrast that to the holiness of God? Can we give somebody a desire to be right with God? Can we cause repentance and the turning away from sin? Can we cause a person to surrender their will? to the king, which is what happens in conversion? Can we commit somebody else to follow Jesus and the king and to live by his ways? And can we instill in somebody, injecting right into their mind, into their heart, a hope that will last from the day of their conversion to the day of their death? Can we do that? Can we cause somebody to have those things? Can we do it for more than one person at the same time or hundreds at the same time or thousands or millions? Of course not.
God grows his kingdom in his time.
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** This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.
