God Makes His Kingdom Grow
How many of you have or have had a garden? I’ve attempted it several times over the years, never with very much success. This summer I am attempting a garden again with peas, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, and herbs. Every time I have ever planted a garden I have always been amazed that you can take something as small as a single seed, plant it in the ground, and a few months later harvest an entire crop of vegetables from those small seeds.
One of the biggest issues I have with gardening is patience. I plant the seeds in the ground and all I can think about is how good those fresh peas are going to taste right out of the pod. But we can’t hurry that process. We need to plant the seed and then wait for it to grow. Those first couple of days can be really hard when we don’t see the tiny sprouts poking up through the soil. I know I was tempted to poke around and see if anything was growing, but that could hurt and damage the young plant.
We don’t like waiting for things. We want instant results. This is especially true for us in our day and age when we can order almost anything we want from Amazon and have it delivered to our doorstep the next day. We want things to happen right away. But some things can’t be hurried and planting seeds and waiting for them to grow is a perfect example of this. Once the seeds are planted we can’t hurry the process or do much to make that seed sprout. This is why Jesus uses this as the basis for the parables we are studying this morning. God’s kingdom grows like seeds planted in a field. And just like seeds it grows on its own and it grows in ways that we don’t expect.
During his earthly ministry, Jesus often used parables to teach the people about the kingdom of God. He used earthly stories and examples to illustrate heavenly truths. He did this because heavenly truths are often difficult for us to understand. For example, when we hear Jesus talk about the kingdom of God we immediately think in political and military terms. We think of God establishing a Christian kingdom in this world. And this is exactly what the people of Jesus’s day were looking for. They wanted God to send a Savior who would bring back the glory of the kingdom of Israel. They wanted another mighty warrior king like David. Instead, God did something very different. He sent his one and only Son to live a life of humility and to suffer and die for the sins of the entire world.
God’s kingdom is not an earthly kingdom. Instead, it is his rule in the hearts of those who believe in him. It is a kingdom of faith. We understand this from reading God’s Word, but we too fall into the temptation of wanting to see God’s kingdom established here in the world. When want to see immediate results when we preach the message of the Gospel. We want to see our society get better, the number of members in our churches grows, and the amount of our offerings increases. And when we don’t see these things happening in the way we want at the time we want we are tempted to think that there is something wrong with God’s Word.
Think of the parable that Jesus shares with us. A sower goes out and sows his seed. He then patiently waits day after day for that seed to sprout and grow. He knows that he can do nothing to make the seed sprout or grow faster. He simply sows the seed and waits. This is how the church grows as well. We sow the seed by preaching the message of the Gospel and then wait for the Spirit to do his work. We struggle with this because it is so different from everything else, we do in our lives. It requires patience and faith.
Faith in the power of God’s Word is something we sometimes struggle with. We are tempted to think that God’s Word needs help because we don’t always see the results we want. Maybe we talked with a family member or friend about our faith again and again and they still don’t believe. Or maybe we have a child who has strayed from the church and despite our best efforts they haven’t returned. Perhaps our church and synod have been faithfully proclaiming God’s Word but the numbers and growth that we want just aren’t happening. We can be tempted to think that we need to do something to help God’s Word along. We can be tempted to believe that God’s Word is not powerful and effective. We can be tempted to put our faith in a new and fancy outreach program or style of worship instead of God’s Word.
We may also be tempted to doubt our own ability to share the message of the Gospel. We don’t believe that God can work through us. Maybe we doubt our ability to talk to others. Or maybe we worry about what
others will think if we talk about our faith. We worry that we won’t have the right words to say, or we won’t be able to answer difficult questions. We don’t trust the power of God’s Word and so we don’t sow the seeds of the Gospel. This parable reminds us that we don’t need to worry about these things because God’s Word is powerful and effective on its own. We can’t do anything to increase the power and efficacy of God’s Word. The church grows where and when our Lord decides. We plant the seeds, but God makes them grow.
This is what makes God’s kingdom so different from every other kind of earthly kingdom. We can’t evaluate the kingdom of God based on standards of earthly success. This is why Jesus gives us the next parable with the mustard seed. From outward appearances, a mustard seed is small and insignificant, but it grows to a very large size. I’m not very familiar with mustard plants so it’s easier for me to think of an acorn. It is so amazing that something so tiny can grow into a massive oak tree. God often works in ways that seem small and insignificant but have extraordinary results.
Jesus from all outward appearances seemed insignificant. He was born to an ordinary man and woman. who were so poor that he was born in a stable. He lived a life of humility and poverty. He was then humiliated, tortured, and crucified as a criminal. From all earthly appearances, his life seemed to be a failure. But God accomplished extraordinary things through Christ. We know that Christ is true God from eternity. We know that he willingly chose to humble himself and place himself under God’s law for us. He lived a perfect life free from sin. He sowed God’s Word faithfully and boldly even in the face of opposition and hatred. He then willingly allowed himself to be betrayed and humiliated for us. He endured the shame and agony of the cross for us. He offered his perfect life as a sacrifice for our sins and endured all of God’s wrath and the torments of hell in our place. He died so that we might live. By his death, he made full and complete payment for all our sins, and by his resurrection, he defeated the power of death and hell and gave us the certainty of eternal life with him.
This is the message of the Gospel that changes lives, grants forgiveness of sins, and gives the blessing of eternal life. It seems so simple and ordinary. It is like that mustard seed that seems so small and yet it grows into a huge plant. This is how God works. Through ordinary means. God creates faith in the heart of a tiny infant through his Word and a splash of water. God gives us the forgiveness of sins through a morsel of bread and a sip of wine that is in with and under the body and blood of his Son. God creates faith in the hearts of those who hear our simple confession of faith as we tell of the love of our Savior.
At some point in our lives, God used an ordinary person: a pastor, a teacher, a family member, or a friend, to share the message of the Gospel with us. That person planted a seed in our hearts that God caused to grow. Because of that person sharing the message of the Gospel with us, we know the peace of forgiveness in Christ. We have the certainty of eternal life because of Christ’s victory over the grave. This is why we can boldly share our faith with others. We want them to have the same peace and joy that we have. We don’t need to worry about saying the right thing or finding the right way to share the Gospel. Because we know that it’s not about us. We are just the sower. We spread the seed of the Gospel and wait for it to grow. We know that this may take years. We know that we may not always see the results, but we know that God is continually working through his Word to create and strengthen faith. We plant the seed and God makes his kingdom grow.