Title: ON KINGDOM
CROP PRODUCTION
Focus: The mystery of God’s kingdom calls for crop production, so that God’s rule will advance.
Function: To move the people to think “kingdom crop production” and to see Christian education play a vital role in the spread of God’s rule.
Text: Mark 4:1-20
When we pray, “Our Father in heaven…may your kingdom come,” we are praying that God will rule us by his Word and Spirit in such a way that more and more we submit to God. We are also asking the Lord that he will keep the church strong and increase her numbers. We also express a deep desire that God will destroy the devil’s work and every force which rebels against God and every conspiracy against God’s Word. (cf. L.D. 48)
Since Christians are citizens of God’s heavenly kingdom and ambassadors in this world to promote God’s rule, let’s raise some relevant questions:
· How will we counteract or destroy such a conspiracy against God’s word as the Da Vinci Code, with its claims and attempts to discredit the Lord Jesus and the Christian faith in general? What kind of a Christian mind or approach does it take to tell the truth in a world filled with lies?
· As the pursuit of justice and peace and the promotion of loving one’s neighbor as the Lord Jesus loves us is part of God’s rule in our world, how will we raise up politicians who do that when they discuss Middle East policy?
· As justice and freedom are important items for a human being to flourish, how will we train and equip managers and ceo’s of companies such as Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. to do business with countries such as China in a way that upholds these values of freedom and justice and dignity for all the Chinese people? We need Christian businessmen and women who are willing to seek the kingdom of God first as they do business. What does it take to raise up a new generation of men and women who live with a kingdom of God world-and-life view?
· As scientists explore the intricacies of life and must make ethical and moral decisions about medical procedures such as abortion, euthanasia, and the production of human organs for transplants, how will we see to it that God’s rule or influence in these areas of life is felt? Who will teach the next generation of scientists, lawyers, politicians, professors, farmers, truck drivers, nurses, and managers to work with a distinct world-and-life view that honors Christ and seeks to spread the rule of God?
This is the question that is woven through my message today, as we consider Jesus’ parable from Mark 4. For there we learn that the mystery of God’s kingdom calls for crop production, so that God’s rule will be advanced.
Many people refer to Jesus’ story as the “parable of the sower.” But I think that the story is more about crop production than about sowing. Of course, the sowing of seed is part of crop production. Let’s face it: no sowing of seed; no harvesting of a crop.
The focus
in this story, however, is on kingdom of God crop production. Note, for
example, that the parable consists of two parts and a middle component. The
first part contains Jesus’ story; the second part contains Jesus’ explanation.
And the middle part pulls into focus the story and the explanation: And the
focus is on the kingdom or rule of God. Listen: (vs. 10-12) “When (Jesus)
was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables.
He told them, ‘The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to
those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, ‘they may be ever
seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding;
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.’”
Now the kingdom or rule of God finds its center in the Lord Jesus. When the Son of God took on our human nature and began his ministry on earth, we learn that Jesus proclaimed the good news of God, saying (Mk. 1:14) “The time has come. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news.” God’s heavenly influence has come to earth through Jesus, in particular through his preaching, suffering, dying, and rising from the dead. By his death Christ set us free from the guilt of sin; by his resurrection Christ broke the power of death and Satan; by his ascension Christ has assumed sovereign rule over the universe—visible and invisible; and by the sending of his Word and Spirit, Christ makes his influence felt in our world today.
To those who do not know or believe in Christ, it’s all a mystery, a secret; To those of us who follow Christ, it’s a mystery given or revealed to us. And the mystery of God’s kingdom calls for a crop production, so that God’s rule will spread in our world.
From Jesus’ story and explanation I hear the Lord Jesus telling us today:
· Sow the story of God’s kingdom. As the story of God’s rule centers in the Lord Jesus and makes up the good news of salvation, we should see the gospel story as seed that must be sown. The seed is the Word of God that can be summarized as “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.”
What is so striking in the story is the sower’s persistence. He keeps sowing the seed—even though he does not always get the desired harvest he is looking for. He keeps on sowing.
Also, note that he does not mess around with the seed. There is no genes manipulation of the seed. In other words, as we sow the seed, let’s preserve it as it is: “Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.” There is no need to mess around with God’s Word as found in the Scriptures. There is no need to add to it, to detract from it, or to change the story so that it becomes more suitable to the human mind or palatable to human taste. Keep sowing the seed as found in Scripture and as embodied by the Lord Jesus Christ. Here’s another thing that Jesus tells us in this story:
·
When sowing the story of God’s rule in Christ,
expect various responses, and don’t be discouraged or disquieted by them.
For example, some people will ignore the Lord Jesus Christ all together. When
you tell them the story of the Christian faith, they will shrug it off, and the
story will fall by the wayside. Or as Jesus said: (vs. 15) “Some people
are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it,
Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.”
Some people
will respond to the good news; but the good news can’t take hold of them and
produce a kingdom crop because they do not tend the soil of their hearts and
minds. They fail to flex the muscles of faith by spiritual habits of prayer,
worship, Scripture reading, and the renewal of their minds in the image of
Christ. As a result they weaken in faith, so that, as Jesus points out in the
story, (vs. 17) “When trouble or persecution comes because of the word,
they quickly fall away.”
Again don’t
be surprised when the seed of the gospel does not yield the hoped for kingdom
crop. Some people will not tend the garden of faith in their hearts; they allow
the weeds to choke off the breath of the gospel. As Jesus says: (vs. 19) “…the
worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other
things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.”
And that leads me to another observation from the story:
·
As we sow the story of God’s reign in our lives,
Christ the King is looking for soil that produces a kingdom crop. Note that the
harvest Jesus is looking for is NOT more seed. Rather, Jesus is looking for the
effects of the gospel seed at work in our lives: justice, mercy, love; the
pursuit of shalom; the practice of forgiveness; the movement toward
reconciliation among peoples and tribes and nations; Jesus calls us to produce
a harvest of righteousness. Here’s how: (vs. 20) “Other (people), like
seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—thirty,
sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.”
Hearing the
Word implies paying attention to it: accepting the Word of God’s kingdom in
Christ involves welcoming, receiving, and treasuring it in one’s heart; and
producing a crop in response to the hearing and accepting of God’s Word means
applying it in every area of life today.
APPLICATIONS
Now let’s go back to the questions we raised earlier: How will we see to it that God’s rule or influence in all areas of life is felt? Who will teach the next generation of scientists, lawyers, politicians, professors, farmers, truck drivers, nurses, and managers to work with a distinct world-and-life view that honors Christ and seeks to spread the rule of God? Who will till the soil of faith and tend the garden of God’s rule in our lives?
The answer is three-fold: the home, the church, and the schools. God has given us all three: Moms and dads to raise their children in the fear of the Lord; the church to proclaim good news of life in Christ Jesus, and to teach and nurture that faith in Christ. And institutions of education to further equip and prepare the next generation for life and a better world.
Today I want to emphasize that we should see distinctive, Christian education as a God-given opportunity to spread the rule of Christ. We live in an era of history, where in addition to the home and the church, God also provides us with distinctive Christian schools and education to form us spiritually and shape our minds in such a way that we can influence the world for God with a biblical world-and-life view that says: “Jesus is king in every area of life.”
Distinctive Christian insights, for example, along with the scientific insights of non-believing researchers, have led to medical wonders. Distinctive Christian principles have led to new farming methods in Africa, where small families now thrive because they have learned new models of farming and of doing business and of helping each other.
Distinctive Christian influences have led an entire society to re-arrange its relationships. Take South Africa and the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, for example. Seeking to apply Christian principles of confession, repentance, and forgiveness, the nation of South Africa has come a long way in dealing with a sordid history of apartheid discrimination, injustice and violence.
Christian artists, like Rembrandt, give us insights in the beauty and nature of God. Musicians, like Ken Miedema, shaped with the mind of Christ, can spread the good news and advance the rule of Christ in our society.
Christian philosophers like Nicholas Wolterstorff, Richard Mouw, and Alvin Plantinga have shaped the thinking of emerging scholars (and forced the re-thinking) of many secular wise men and women; And people of prominence and shapers of society such as Chuck Colson are influenced by these philosophers’ Christian world-and-life view; and as a result Colson’s prison ministry, for example, has improved and brought about rehabilitation of prisoners’ lives.
It is through distinctively biblical education—covering every area and sphere of life—that God enables us to produce a kingdom crop whereby we spread God’s rule today.
Government supported schools and institutions cannot, by law, do what distinctive Christian institutions of learning can do. If the mystery of God’s kingdom calls for crop production by Christians (and it does), then let’s work through the home, the church, and the schools of learning. In that way, our prayers “May your kingdom come, O Lord,” will find fertile soil in hearts and lives that long to advance God’s rule in our world.
Maranatha! Lord Jesus, reign in us! Rule through us! And come again. Soon! Amen.