Show and Tell

Mark 4: 21 – 32

Have you ever wondered what the Kingdom of God is really like? I’m not referring to what we will experience after we have been called home to be with the Lord. We have several different words about this in the Bible, and we often sing hymns about “When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be…”

No… today I would like to focus on the subject of what the Kingdom of God is really like. We have examples of what the Kingdom of God is really like. People have been asking what the Kingdom of God will be like, and we have Jesus’ own words to reflect on from Luke 17: 20 – 21… Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.”


So Jesus has given us the basic idea that we are a part of the Kingdom of God… and that the Kingdom of God is active among each of us. It has nothing to do with the flesh, but is evident when we gather together to worship HIM in spirit and in truth. Paul writes these words to the church at Rome… “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. For he who serves Christ in these things is acceptable to God and approved by men.”

I could go on and on about different writings that make an attempt to describe what the Kingdom Of God is like, but I would like to focus on two parables… two analogies… Jesus showed us each day and in many different ways what the Kingdom of God is like… in the ways in which he taught his disciples, and in the ways in which he touched and healed the people around him… and then he told us what it was like through different parables and stories… Show… and Tell…

First he talks about what happens when someone experiences a relationship with Jesus… you do not hide a lamp under a basket or under a bed, but you put it in such a position that it’s light can be seen throughout the whole house. He was laying down some groundwork for this particular teaching when he told us that “There is nothing hidden which will not be revealed… and that with the same measure you use, it will be measured to you…

Then he launches into the first analogy… Notice the words from verse 26… “The Kingdom of God is as if…” and he talks about a man scattering seed on the ground. Soon enough that seed sprouts and grows… how it grows is a mystery, but Jesus pointed out three distinctive phases of that seed’s growth… it germinates and sends up a blade… then soon enough the blade grows and produces an ear… and then the corn develops in the ear. So there is a growth process involved with the Kingdom of God… just as there is a growth process involved with every facet of life.

Then Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed… Again, notice his words from verse 30… “To what shall we liken the Kingdom of God?” And then he talks about a mustard seed… the smallest of the smallest seeds… so small that it would look like a tiny dot on a piece of white paper… but when it is sown into the ground and allowed to germinate produces one of the largest herbs known to mankind… so large, in fact, that it shoots out large branches that the birds can nest under its shade…

Jesus’ whole point in these two parables was to tell his followers that Kingdom Living is a process, and that it often takes patience… especially when he knows that his people often hate to wait for results, but our faith walk is just like the kernel of corn, and the mustard seed… a little bit of patience, and a whole lot of cultivation will yield a bumper crop of results for the Kingdom of God.

There is another point to these two parables that needs to be brought to your attention this morning. Jesus not only points to the vast potential that is contained, not only in those two insignificant little seeds, but also in our faith, but he also points out in another passage the value of sacrificial living… preferring others above self… In John 12: 20 – 25 we read this story… Now there were some Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Feast. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, with a request. "Sir," they said, "we would like to see Jesus." Philip went to tell Andrew; Andrew and Philip in turn told Jesus.

Jesus replied, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. “ The Greeks at the Feast wanted to see Jesus… perhaps to talk with him, and to learn of him… and Jesus gave the message that if somebody wants to see Jesus, that person needs to die to self… or as he put it elsewhere in the Gospels… Take up your cross and follow him… and you will bear much fruit.

Theologian and Author Karl Barth once said that when Jesus calls us and draws us to HIM, He calls us to “Come and Die…” If you feel that God is calling you into a closer relationship with HIM… with Jesus… with the local branch of the Body of Christ, he tells us to come, not with our own agendas, but with hearts open to listen to HIS word, hands ready to do his bidding, mouths ready to sing his praises, and feet ready to follow where he leads.

I Bid You Peace,
Pastor Ken+