Mark 4:21-34
Key Verses: 4:31-32...."It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted,  it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of  the air can perch in its shade."

        In the previous passage we learned that we must cultivate our heart soil to accept the word  of God and produce abundant spiritual fruits. Today's passage, verses 21-34, has three parables.  These parables teach us a very important truth.  Among three parables, the parable of the mustard  seed is mainly concerned with the kingdom of God. Let's accept one word from this passage. I pray that all of us may sow the seed of life to many students so that the kingdom of God may grow in  their hearts. May God bless us to have faith that we can grow to become great spiritual leaders in our generation.

PART I. A LAMP ON A STAND (21-25)

Look at verse 21. "He said to them, `Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don't you put it on its stand?'" In this verse, the lamp stands for self-evident truth. It is also compared to a light to brighten a room. What is the obvious thing to do with a lamp? Should we put  it under a bowl? Should we put it under a bed? Should we put it on its stand? The right answer is the third one. We should put it on its stand. In order to light a room we bring in a lamp and we must
put it on its stand. One who puts his lamp under a bowl or a bed is very stupid. He is a man without common sense. For example, we waste energy if we turn a flashlight on and hide it in the drawer.

What will happen if we hide a burning lamp under the bed. There is a danger that we will burn our hands and fingers and legs when the bed is burned by the lamplight. Therefore, we draw an obvious conclusion: we must put the lamp on its stand to brighten the entire room. We must use the lamp for a good purpose. This really makes sense.

How is the word of life like a lamp? Psalm 119:105 says, `Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." In the context of the previous passage here the lamp symbolizes the word of God. Once we receive the word of God, it dispels the darkness from our hearts and it enlightens our hearts. The word of God shows us the way of righteousness and leads us to the truth. The word of God transformed us into the kingdom of God. Our inner person was freed from the power of sin
and death and was born again into the new birth. 1 Peter 1:23 says, "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring the word of God." We were changed by the enduring word of God. When we accepted the word of Jesus, we became the children of light because Jesus is the light of the world. How can we be lamps? Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-15, "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do
people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house." Where do you put a light bulb? We put it on the ceiling so that it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way we have to shine the light of Jesus before men. We have to influence the world by shining the light of Jesus. We have to share the word of God we received with others. We have to teach the Bible. We should live by faith. We should not hide the word of
God but use it for the benefit of others who live in darkness. We should not hide our faith in the closet. We should proclaim the word of God so that many people may hear it and be saved by it.

Apostle Paul said in Philippians 2:15b-16a, "you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life." When we teach the word of life, we can become Jesus' stars shining brightly in the universe. Jesus' stars are better than the Holly Wood movie stars because they shine in the universe. As you know, Jay is our youngest shepherdess. But she is Jesus' shining star by sharing the word of God with Ezinne. She is not hiding the word of God but proclaim it boldly so that her
friends may accept Jesus, the light of the world. We can be lamps by honoring and loving God as God. We can be lamps by practicing Jesus' teaching in our practical lives. We can be lamps by loving our children with God's compassion. We can make the dark world better by sharing the love of God with others. Our life of faith can make the difference. Are you hiding the word of life in the closet? Then repent and preach the word in season and out of season.

Let's read verse 22. "For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open." Though the secret of the kingdom of God is hidden to the outsiders, eventually nothing will be hidden and everything will be revealed. When we turn on the light in our room, we can see everything clearly. In the same way the word of God exposes everything under the broad daylight. Hebrews 4:12-13 says, "For the word of God is living
and active. Sharper that any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give accounts." This is a warning that we should live according to self-evident truth or by the word of God, practicing the word of God in our daily lives. We should live before God's eyes not before
men's eyes. We can deceive man but the word of God reveals everything. The word of God reveals our sin problem hidden in our heart and make us repent of our sins. Last week the word of God revealed that many thorns of worries are growing in my heart and they are choking the word of God. I repented my sins of worries. When the word of God exposes our sins, we should repent right away and receive God's forgiveness. We don't need to hide our sins because Jesus knows our
problem and he is willing to help us. We should live as children of light. Then we will not be ashamed when Jesus comes again. Otherwise our final destiny will be miserable. These days many Christians have adopted society's sinful ways and maintained secret double life. One Christian wife complained, "I felt my husband drifting away from me, and I could not figure out why. Then I opened the door to his study and caught him leering at porn on the Internet." Her husband's secret
life was exposed by accident. Multitudes of Christian teenagers are downloading wicked songs like songs about cop killing; songs about death through the Napster site secretly. But all secret activities will be exposed before the word of God. It is horrible to see all our secret activities under the daylight. Read verse 23. "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." This is Jesus' warning. We must pay a careful attention to the word of God and meditate it day and night. Look at verse 24. "`Consider carefully what you hear,' he continued. `With the measure you use, it will be measured to you-and even more.'" How can we consider carefully what we hear?

The best way is to write a testimony. If we don't consider the word of God carefully, it comes to one ear and goes out to another ear. The word of God does not mean anything to us. But when we think about the meaning of the word again and again by writing a testimony, the word of God comes alive in our heart and gives us a great joy and happiness. In this verse, the word "measure" implies a person's value system or the ruler a person uses. Jesus spoke very gently about the measure people use. This means that we will be measured by others how we measure them. Once there was a smart boy who would like to play with his classmate during the class. He was caught by his teacher many times. His teacher made him shout in front of many girl students 50 times saying, "I will not play again during the class." Twenty years later, this school teacher, now a gray-haired grandmother, stood in front of a judge who was her former student she punished due to her parking
violation. The judge gave her the following sentence: Pay $10 fine and shout 100 times in the street corner saying, "I will not violate the parking law again." She was measured according what she measured for her student. She was measured 50 times more. Don't practice this because it is just an example to assist your understanding. Be gentle to your old teacher. But this verse tells us that we will be rewarded according to our life principle or our value system. There is a saying goes like this, "When we give to others in a cup, we will receive in a bucket." If we give our love to others, we will be loved by our Lord more. 2 Corinthians 9:6 says, "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously." It is natural to reap as much as we sow. When we sow the word of life with tears, we will harvest with songs of joy. The word of God gives us back more than what we invested because God is generous and abundant. That `s a spiritual truth. Our life will be measured by our value system. If we value the word of God more precious than the gold, we will be rewarded by the word of God.

Look at verse 25. "Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him." God gives more to those who are faithful and work hard.  The more we understands the word of God, the more God pours out his blessings. The secret of God will be revealed more and more if we seek the word of God diligently. Good heart soil prospers more and more and bad heart soil withers and there will be no fruit.

II.     THE PRABLE OF THE GRTOWING SEED (26-29)

This parable tells us mainly about the power of the kingdom of God.  Look at verse 26. "He also said, `This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground.'" Here the focus is on the man who scatters seed on the ground. Here the man refers to the Bible teachers or the messengers. The first step is to scatter seed on the ground. Without scattering the seed nothing happens. Paul said in Romans 10:14c, "And how can they hear without someone preaching to
them?" We see the vital role of the man who scatters the seed on the ground. We must appreciate someone who scattered the word of God to our heart. Look at verse 27. "Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, through he does not know how." Here we see the role of God once the Bible teachers or shepherds cast the seed. The Bible teachers do not know how the seed grows. All they have to do is to scatter the seed and watch how the seed grows. They don't need to get up all night to find out how the seed grows. They need faith that the seed will grow. Why? The seed has life in itself. This parable tells us that the kingdom of God grows in our hearts day after day, month by month, year by year. Once the man scatters the seed, it is not his responsibility for the seed to grow. It is God who makes the seed grow. God provides a proper temperature for the seed to geminate and a right amount of rain and sunshine for the seed to grow. It is a great mystery for the seed to grow and become fruitful. I do a lot of programming and system design but I really do not know how the computer executes my commands. But mysteriously the computer understands what I want to do and performs the jobs I expect to do. In the same way God grows the seed mysteriously. If the man tries to dig the ground to see what is going on to the seed during the night instead of sleeping, he may ruin the seed before it sprouts.  The Bible teachers must be patient and wait for the seed to grow. The main role of the Bible teachers is to water the plant and make an environment for the seed to grow. 1 Cor. 3:6-7 says, "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only
God, who makes things grow."

       Look at verse 28. "All by itself the soil produces grain-first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head." This verse explains the process how the seed grows. There are number of development stages for the seed to grow. The first stage is the stalk. This refers to a young sheep. He or she is born again into the kingdom of God by the Holy Spirit. In this stage they are very curious to learn everything. They are young and tender. They are loved by everyone like Luke Jr.
The next stage is the head. This stage is most dangerous because they think they know everything. They began not to listen to their Bible teachers. They are proud. The last stage is the full kernel in the head. This stage is a mature stage. This person is stable and mature and began to help others. They know who they are and know what they are doing. We cannot ignore this grow process. We cannot skip one of these steps. We have to go through it. It is a painful process in a sense. But we must accept this process of spiritual growth. Many shepherds make a big mistake by ignoring this process of spiritual growth. They may have an inflated expectation. They expect fruits when the plant is in the stage of stalk. They will be disappointed greatly when sheep remains sheep for a year. But remember that it took three years for Jesus to raise up his disciples. We wish that our sheep become a shepherd after one year Bible study. We shout to our sheep, "Grow, grow fast."  We are nervous and impatient and then sheep run away. We ruin the young plant because of our impatient. I grew up as a farm boy. Most farmers knows when they expect to harvest their crops. They usually wait for 6-7 months to harvest.

Look at verse 29. "As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come." Harvesting is the final stage of our salvation by our God. John Newton said that there would be three surprises when we would go to the heaven: "You will find someone whom you  supposed would not to be there. You will also not find someone whom you expected to be there. The most surprising thing might be that a terrible sinner like me came to the heaven." We never know who will be harvested in the end. Only God knows because he is the one who grows our faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. But we know one thing, "By the grace of God we are saved." We should not give up our sheep because of many bad habits thinking, "My sheep is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. He will not be changed at all" Many missionary parents despair when they do not see their children grow in faith. But they don't know what is going on in their hearts.
They need patient in their spiritual growth and pray and wait for them to become the full kernel in the head. The prodigal son in Luke 15 went through some wild stages of his spiritual wandering life. But his faith grew through his failures and he returned to his loving father. The seed of life was growing in his heart even in the midst of his wild life. Kristi Berkebile though that her faith was gone when her father who was a minister died. But she said, "My faith came back." Each of us goes
through a certain stage of hardship but God grows the seed of life once it is planted. This parable encourages us to trust God in our shepherding life.

III.    THE PRABLE OF THE MUSTARD SEED (30-34)

Look at verse 30. "Again he said, `What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?'" Verse 30 clearly tells us that the former two parables were written to explain this third parable, especially about the kingdom of God. Even Jesus had difficulty to find the words to explain the kingdom of God to them. So he said in verse 30, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?" The kingdom of God is not given, but we must discover the kingdom of God through studying the word of God. The previous parable emphasizes the process of growth of the kingdom of God. This parable emphasizes the result of the growth of the kingdom of God. It demonstrates the unlimited potential growth. Jesus related this parable to his young disciples who were despised and unschooled Galiean fishermen. Look at verse 31. "It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground." As
we know, the mustard seed is the smallest garden seed. It can be despised as useless. The kingdom of God looks useless and seemingly the kingdom of God is hopeless. It is limited and invisible and insignificant. The kingdom of God seems to be useless in this hard world. So Jesus explained that it is like a mustard seed which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground.  Look at verse 32. "Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade." Primarily Jesus tells us that the kingdom of God looks like the smallest seed. But when it is planted it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade. Here Jesus tells us another significance of the kingdom of God. We must first believe that the kingdom of God in our souls may grow by God's grace and finally become the largest tree among other trees. In other words, when we have the kingdom of God we will be the greatest persons; we will become the largest plant of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in our shade.

The conclusion of this parable is that we must grow as the largest tree so that the birds of the air can perch in our shade. This parable basically tells us that we should not despise ourselves because we are like the smallest person among all people. Even if we are the smallest persons among all people, if we have the kingdom of God we can be the greatest tree with abundant branches and leaves so that many needy birds can come to rest in our shade. This parable reminds us of God's promise to Abraham, "You will be a blessing and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you" (Gen 12:2,3). How can a seventy-five year old man whose wife was barren be a blessing? But he became a source of blessing to all people.  Now we call ourselves descendants of Abraham because he accepted God's word to become a source of blessing. Why does God want us to have the kingdom of God? It is mainly because God wants us to be a source of blessing. God is not pleased when we become burdensome to others like a paralytic. God is not pleased when we become like a tax collector who left his wife and his country and his people only to make money. Jesus' disciples were small in the beginning and they were nobodies in the Roman Empire. They looked insignificant and were despised. Nothing good could come from the despised town of Galilee. But when they accepted the word of Jesus, the kingdom of God began to grow in their hearts. Jesus had a great vision for his young disciples. They were like the mustard seed but Jesus saw them grow to become tall spiritual oak trees to change the human history. Indeed they became history makers. With one sermon Peter was able to win 3000 converts. They grew to become the most important people in human history,
the twelve disciples of Jesus. In conclusion, our ministry was small in the beginning but it began to grow when several American shepherds accepted the word of God in their hearts. Now we branched out to Baltimore and Virginia and eventually all the way to Florida. Let's read the key verses 31,32.