Our God is at work today, and His is a 24-hour a day, 7-day a week.
Jesus ushered in the Kingdom of God and ever since then, nothing has been the same.
He set in motion a spiritual force - the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of man
- by His power people are brought back home to be with God.
- by His power people are delivered from the Kingdom of darkness into the light
Every day we see people dying and we see new birth. This is true also in the spiritual sense.
- People are dying and people are born again every day.
- There hasn’t been, and will never be, an inactive day in the Kingdom of God, until Jesus returns.
Jesus told 3 parables about the Kingdom of God - to let us know what is really happening
o the parable of the SHINING LIGHT
o the parable of the GROWING SEED
o the parable of the MUSTARD SEED
FIRST. Now, the light can no longer be hidden. You can’t shut off the light.
- Ever since Jesus introduced this Light into this dark world, it has been shining… and spreading.
- Nothing can stop it. Light dispels darkness. Darkness can do nothing against the light.
Jesus set in motion this “business of changing lives” and it’s still moving today.
And He tells the disciples to let this Light shines, in greater ways and more ways…
SECOND parable tells us that His Kingdom will grow. Man will not be able to stop it.
- It may be unseen or unnoticed, but it is working.
- Lives have been transformed and are being changed even right now as we are speaking.
- His Kingdom is growing.
THIRD parable tells us it’s going to grow so big - that it will surpass all garden plants.
- It will grow across boundary lines into the outermost parts of the world.
- It starts small - very small – the smallest seed you can find in Palestine – mustard seed
- But it will not remain small.
- The birds of the air can perch in its shade. The world benefits from it.
These pictures of the KINGDOM OF GOD are prophetic pictures of what is to come, and what is happening today. Jesus says the Kingdom of God will continue to grow until the harvest.
Today we are right in the middle of it. Let’s look at the parable of the growing seed:
26 He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground.
27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.
28 All by itself the soil produces grain - first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.
29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."
We won’t get excited about the Word of God - about the seed - until we realize that it’s more than just a collection of verses.
- It is a living force - it has the power to make the promises (the Word) become a reality in our life.
- In order words, all that is said here can be real in our lives.
Can we really believe this? Is it tough for you to believe this can be true?
- Jesus says this happen in the natural world all the time.
- If I were to put a tomato seed in your hand and tell you that within that tiny, dry seed lies the power to produce a stalk thousands of times bigger than the seed, to produce leaves and roots and round, red tomatoes, you wouldn’t have any trouble believing that, would you?
- You know from experience that even though that tiny seed doesn’t look like a tomato factory, somehow, given the right environment, it will become one.
Jesus says the Kingdom of God works by that same principle.
- When we believe the Word of God, we experience a change.
- There is miraculous power in His Word. It is a seed that, once planted by faith in a human heart, will produce more blessings than you can imagine.
The seed grows, all by itself.
- Man may not have noticed. Night and day, we go around doing our own things.
- Above ground, nothing seems to be happening.
- Yet God is working and causing a change unseen by the naked eye.
- We are mistaken today if we think God is not doing anything.
- Growth is taking place, and the man does not even know how it takes place.
27Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.
We do not know why some seeds grow faster than others?
- Why does some corn take 90 days and others 120 days, even though they are corns?
- Why is it that small seeds grow bigger than big seeds?
If we can’t explain the things we see, the things that are part-and-parcel of our lives, how can we understand the things that are spiritual?
- I cannot explain to you how God change a heart and transform a life. But He does.
- Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:7-8 "You should not be surprised at my saying, ’You must be born again.’ 8The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
If you plant a seed, you can expect to see “the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.”
- The growth of a plant is the marvellous work of God, not simply the result of the laws of nature.
- Yes, we need the rain, the sun, the tilling of the ground.
- But ultimately we have to admit that the plant grew by the power of God - not by chance or not because of the hard work put in by man.
Paul says (1 Cor 3:6-8), “6I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. 7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.”
- I think farmers would have a keener sense of this - plants just don’t grow simply by man’s efforts.
The seed is important. We need to spend time in the Word of God because the power of growth is in that seed. We want the power of the Word to work in us.
- Each time we read or listen to the Word, we are planting seeds - seeds of hope, seeds of health, seeds of protection, and the seeds of victory for every area of my life.
- Don’t treat the Word of God like a book. It’s not! It’s a spiritual seed that has the supernatural power within it to produce the harvest of a lifetime.
Get excited about it and start planting today!
Dwight L. Moody, the evangelist, was riding on a train after a crusade. An old drunk came up to him and said, “You know, Mr. Moody, I’m one of your converts.”
Mr. Moody looked him right in the eye and said, “Son, I’m afraid you are one of mine, because you are obviously not a convert of Christ’s.”
If you have really heard the Word of God, you would not be like that!
1 Pet 1:23 "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God."
Start planting the seeds of God’s Word - therein lies the power to change lives.
- Do it for yourself, do you for bro/sis in Christ, even so for friends who aren’t saved yet.
- The seed will grow, night and day.
- We may not see it, we may not know how it happens
Jesus said it very clear - the harvest will come. It’s a sure thing!
God will bring the harvest – this is our most profound conviction.
Start planting. This theme is present in all 3 parables:
- The lamp cannot be hidden. We need to let it shine!
- The man needs to scatter the seed, or else nothing will happen.
- "the smallest seed YOU plant in the ground..."(v.31)
This is obvious, but needs to be emphasized.
- The seed must first be planted, in order for anything at all to happen in a person’s life; even so for your own life.
- There must be the deliberate planting of the seed.
A pastor once visited a believer in Canada with a large grain farm and asked about the seeds he uses.
"Don’t be cheap with the seed."
One bushel of seed invested yields thirty bushels of grain harvested in a good year - it’s 30 to 1, not a bad return. He showed me a distributor that was some 9m wide. "We take that huge truck, fill it with certified seed, back it up to the distributor, open the slots, and pour in the seed." He went on to say, "If you’re ever going to be cheap, don’t be cheap with the seed."
...Jack Exum. James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988), p. 463.
We have the best seed in our hands - the Word of God. Don’t be cheap with the seed.
- In the parable of the Sower, Jesus says we can bring in 30, 60 or even 100 times what was sown.
- Paul says in 2 Cor 9:6 "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously."
2 Cor 9:10-11 "Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
Although used in the material sense, this principle applies also in the spiritual way.
If I want potatoes for dinner tomorrow, it will do me little good to plant them in my garden tonight.
- There will be long stretches of unseen pauses and silence that separates planting and reaping.
- But the harvest will surely come.
- And how the harvest is going to turn out will depend on what you plant today.
As Christians, we desire to see people come to the same vital relationship with Jesus that we have.
That should be the desire of every Christian.
If we know and love Jesus, we should desire for others to know and love Him also.
If we are forgiven and now enjoy His love, then we must desire for others to know Him too.
We must deliberately plant the seed if we would ever see a harvest.
Do whatever we can - share something about Christianity, about church, about the Bible, about the Christians’ point of view on some topics... and get the ball rolling.
Plant the seed, however you will, but plant it. God will work from there. He promised us:
Isa 55:10-11
10As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11so is My word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent.
Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
God’s Word is powerful enough to accomplish what He pleases if His people are faithful in spreading it abroad.
We can have comfort in knowing that if we are faithful in sowing, God will work in the life of an individual what He pleases.
Learn to place the person’s soul in God’s hands, and keep praying.
- We may not see the seed growing before our very eyes, but it’s fine.
- Anyway we are not responsible for making the seed sprout, grow, and blossom.
- We are responsible to God for the planting the seeds.
Don’t be too disappointed if you did not see much.
Jesus said in John 4:37-38, “37Thus the saying ’One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour.”
Isaiah 55:8-9 speaks a word about placing one’s trust in God. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
- God provides us the assurance. There will be things we do not understand or expect, but rest assured that God is watching over and working through them.
- We do not understand how the Kingdom of God will grow, but it does and it will.
Time of Reflection
As we sow the seed, the seed will grow. Keeping planting, wherever you go, whatever you do.
- When you’re in the office, plant a seed.
- When you’re eating in the canteen, plant a seed.
- When you are talking with your neighbour, plant a seed.
As you do, God will begin to cause the seeds to germinate. In His own way and time.
- Remember, if we did not plant any seed, we cannot expect a harvest.
- What we can take away from these parables is that God is actively involved in bringing a lost world back to Himself. We are privileged to be part of this great work.
- Look out for the great harvest. It’s coming.
