Introduction
You have just bought some wonderful new product, and you have brought it home and taken it out of the box. Packed in the box with the product itself is a booklet or some papers. Of course these are the instructions that tell you how to operate the product you just bought. Unless you are already familiar with the product, you would be wise to read through the booklet first–I speak from experience! For here you will learn how this thing works, and you will learn how to operate this new device properly.
In our gospel reading for this Sunday we overhear the Lord Jesus speaking about the most wonderful product of all–a product produced by God Himself. This is the Kingdom of God. Jesus would soon be sending His followers into all the world to spread God’s Kingdom, and Jesus described for His followers "How God’s Kingdom Works." Now, we are among those followers of Jesus who are also involved in this task of spreading the Kingdom of God, and we also need to know "How God’s Kingdom Works." So let’s think together today about what Jesus is telling us about "How God’s Kingdom Works."
I. God’s Kingdom Grows from the Seed of God’s Word.
The first of these parables teaches us from what resource God’s Kingdom grows. Jesus illustrates this by comparing the source and power that produces the growth of God’s Kingdom to seed that a farmer sows into the soil. Of course the illustration uses farming methods in the time that the gospels were written. Then a farmer would scatter seed onto soil he had prepared by loosening it with a tool something like a rake. The farmer broadcast the seed, perhaps as we would sow grass seed on a new lawn today. And when the farmer had done that, he was through. He waited until the seed germinated and sprouted. How the seed grew, he didn’t know; he just knew it did. He sowed the seed like his daddy and his granddaddy did. All of the potential was in the seed itself. The soil itself did not produce the plants–the seed did. Without the seed, there would be no plants.
And that is the way it is with God’s Kingdom, too, Jesus tells us–though, of course, in a much fuller and more important way. The seed to which Jesus refers is the Word of God; the soil is the people to whom the Word of God comes. God’s Kingdom grows within people by the power of the Word of God itself. While we know that seeds draw upon nutrients in the soil, there are no such nutrients in people needed by God’s Word. In the case of God’s Kingdom growing within people, it is only the Word that produces the result. St. Peter refers to this when we writes in his First Letter: "you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God" (1:23), and St. John also refers to this as he begins his Gospel: "to all tho did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (1:12-13).
Furthermore, just as the cells of the seed divide and multiply and specialize in a way that produces the growing plant and even an abundance of seeds from which other plants will develop and grow, so the Word of God produces growth and develops the Christian person. Like the maturing plant, maturing Christians also produce fruit–the fruit of faith produced in them by God’s Word. What this fruit is we find enumerated in such passages as this one from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians: "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (5:22-23). Of course, this is only a partial list; we find other such fruit of Christian growth listed or referred to in many other passages.
God’s Kingdom is produced and grows within the soil of the human heart solely because of the inherent power of God’s Word. We are called to spread God’s Kingdom by spreading the Word of God, together as a church and, as we have opportunity, individually as Christian witnesses concerning Christ and the salvation He has brought. We need only sow the seed of God’s Word, just as it was previously sown, and continues to be sown, in our own hearts. We do not need to worry about what will happen to the seed. We do not have to make God’s Kingdom grow. God’s Word will grow God’s Kingdom; of that we may be confident, for we have God’s own Word to assure us of that: "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My Word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it" (Is. 55:10-11).
II. God’s Kingdom grows to include believers throughout time in this world.
So the first of these two brief parables teaches us that God’s Word is what produces and prospers God’s Kingdom; our task in spreading God’s Kingdom is to spread the Word of God, which will produce God’s Kingdom. The second of these parables assures us of the growth of God’s Kingdom. Once again, to teach this point, Jesus draws a parallel from growing plants. But this time He refers to how one tiny seed produces a very large plant–a plant so large and strong enough that it will support the weight of birds that nest in its branches. This was the mustard plant that was grown in gardens of the time when the gospels were written. My Bible dictionary tells me that "Palestinian mustard trees sometimes grow to a height of ten to fifteen feet or more."
When Jesus spoke this parable, the tremendous growth of that Kingdom that would grow from the Gospel was still in the future. We can look back to see that how Jesus described the growth of God’s kingdom was not exaggerated–and it hasn’t stopped growing yet, has it? God’s Kingdom will continue to grow until the Lord puts an end to this present world by coming again in His glory. In the meantime, think of how many people have come into God’s Kingdom since Jesus spoke this parable–people from every period of history and from countless lands and peoples. The Lord Himself gives us a picture of this great kingdom in one of the visions given to St. John and included in the Book of Revelation: "After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’" (7:9-10).
Thank our gracious God, you and I are included in this great Kingdom that God has produced through the Gospel! One day we also will be in that innumerable group of people standing before God’s throne in heaven and joining in the worship and praise that is given to our glorious God there. Thank the gracious Lord that we also are part of that grand Kingdom that St. Paul describes as he assures us: "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord" (Eph. 2:19-21). And, thank the gracious Lord, He has called us also to join in the wonderful task of spreading this Kingdom of God by spreading the Gospel to those around us, together through our church and individually as Christian witnesses as the Lord gives us opportunity.
Conclusion
What great encouragement and assurance the Lord is giving us today through these two brief parables. Each time we repeat the Lord’s Prayer we pray "Thy Kingdom come!" and recall what Dr. Luther teaches us about this petition: "The Kingdom of God certainly comes by itself without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come among us also. How does God’s Kingdom come? God’s Kingdom comes when our heavenly Father gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His holy Word and lead godly lives here in time and there in eternity." To this we add a fervent and a joyful "Amen."