Mark 4:26 And Jesus was saying, "The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; 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. 28 "The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. 29 "But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."
The mystery of Kingdom growth
A parable is intended to illustrate a major point in Scripture.
Several people have said that interpreting parables begins with determining the main idea of the story. As Charles Spurgeon said, “You need not make a parable walk on all fours.” In other words, you don’t have to assign a spiritual meaning to every single word of the parable. Your job is to hear the parable and ask the Lord to teach you its meaning and application.
In last week’s parable of the soils, Jesus taught His disciples its meaning. He told them that each soil represents a way that people respond to the Word of God when it is sown. For some, it never penetrates the heart. It gets snatched away before they ever understand it. For others, they respond initially, but don’t have a firm root for the Word to take hold. Still others receive the word, but they ultimately have too many other pressing issues in life that keep them from fruitfully applying the Word. The final group hears the Word, applies it, and their lives become fruitful as a result.
This week’s parable comes immediately on the heels of the parable of the soils, but its lesson is entirely different.
Look for the parable’s main idea.
Take a moment to read the parable (on the top of the page) and ask yourself, “What is the main idea?” Don’t try to spiritualize it, simply answer the question, “What is the main point?”
Notice that this parable has a sower as its main character. The sower is similar to most farmers or gardeners that I know. They plant the seed but they don’t really know how it grows. Oh, they may know how to water it and fertilize it, how to weed and how to hoe, but when it comes to the actual day by day growth of the plant, they don’t really know how it happens - and that’s okay.
So while the sower plants the seed and goes about his business, the seed does what it is supposed to do. It sprouts, grows, matures and ripens all on its own.
Once the seed is mature and ripe, the sower knows what to do. He gets his sickle and harvests the crop.
What is the main point? Sow seed, let it grow, and then bring in the harvest.
How then, is this like the Kingdom of God? Let’s begin to unpack it.
The sower in this parable does not represent God. Why? Because the sower does not understand how the seed grows. God created seeds He knows how they work this can’t be referring to Him.
Who then, does the sower represent? I believe it represents God’s children. Whether individually or collectively, we are called to spread God’s good news with others. We who embrace the reign and rule of God in our hearts are to share the seed of God’s word with others.
Once the word is spread, God begins to do a work in the heart of the one who has received it. He causes it to grow. And just like the sower of seed, the sower of God’s good news doesn’t know how the Word germinates in the heart of the receiver of the word – he just knows that it does.
If you are a believer, you may know this to be true in your own life. There may have been a time when God’s message didn’t make any sense to you. But at some point you ‘got it’. And then you began to grow in your understanding of God and of spiritual things. Someone probably initially told you about the Lord, but God Himself is the One who opened your eyes to understand and know Him. Is that your story?
This week’s instructions…
This week we will begin to explore the ramifications of this parable and we will ask God to help us understand how to pray as a result. If we understand this kingdom parable, we’ll better understand how to pray aright.
Don’t just pray through your normal list of prayers this week. Instead, ask God to show you new things to pray – Kingdom things. Ask Him to put on your heart the things that are already on His heart. Ask Him to show you big things to pray, things that you may not fully understand, but things that only He can do.
Pray with other children of God this week. Discuss these truths among yourselves. Together ask God to show you the prayers that He would have you pray. And then pray them. Fervently. Coroporately.
If you have a rich insight, please click on comments at the end of the daily study and type your insight.
Prayer Bullets:
This week, plan to get together with your prayer partner. Talk through the principles of kingdom prayer that you have contemplated since the beginning of this study.
- Ask God to give you direction as you pray. Listen to Him.
- Ask Him to give you a deeper understanding of Kingdom Prayer.
- As a disciple, ask Him to help you understand these parables.
- Tell God of your desire to have Him fully reign and rule in your heart.
- Ask Him to show you things that are getting in the way of His full reign and rule in your heart.
- Ask God to show you new things to pray – things to pray as a result of this parable.
- Ask Him how to pray for yourself.
- Ask Him how to pray for your family.
- Ask Him how to pray for other believers – in your church and around the world.
- Ask Him how to pray for those that don’t yet have the privilege of knowing Him.
- Ask Him to give you very specific ways to apply these principles.
- Ask Him to help you love Him more, love His family more, and love those who do not know Him more.
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