Mark
4 v 26-34
I
would like you to turn with me to the 4th Chapter of Mark’s gospel
beginning at verse 26. Here we have one
of two parables from today’s gospel reading.
Whenever
Jesus was giving a sermon He used a parable with a topical illustration and
taught simply. He would use nature subjects such as birds, trees, flowers. This first parable is all about growth.
A
farmer will sow seed, and then go away and leave it to grow on its own, the secret
of growth lying within the seed, which will develop under its own power. The farmer will return to collect the harvest,
when he will separate the good produce from the weeds.
Jesus said the Kingdom of God is like
this. The term ‘Kingdom of God’, is
where God’s will is perfectly done. Each
parable does of course have a spiritual meaning. Just as the farmer cannot make the seed grow,
we cannot make the Kingdom of God grow on our own. God has given us His Word, the Bible, and as
we study and meditate on it we will then be able to play our part in making it
grow.
We
need to follow the farmer analogy as we consider Church growth. We should first let the Word of God be
preached, and then allow time for it to root and grow. There is no point in
trying to rush things.
The
Bible, contains the very presence of Christ Himself There is something inside
the Bible that when it is planted into a person’s heart, the interest in Christ
begins to grow. The Bible has a
mysterious power. That is why it is so
essential that preachers should faithfully prepare and preach that Word.
I
have been able to listen to some wonderful preachers from the United States, and
it is uplifting to come from hearing them.
Sadly, I too often listen to preachers who waffle on about all manner of
things, and seem to be preachers for their own glorification.
Just
as nature’s growth is so powerful, so is Gods’ Word to change lives. This is why coming to Church is so important. Most people have
not recognised the treasure, which is the Christian gospel. The vast majority
of people have not got their priorities right.
People have great excuses not to come to church. They tell me that
you do not have to go to church to be a Christian, but they are not at home on
a Sunday morning doing bible study by themselves. They are not involved in
serving God. They have chosen that other things are more important. Usually
they have made a choice that other things, not spiritual things, are more
important to them.
They make a choice for themselves, sadly they also make a choice for their
families too. The choice has an effect which rebounds down the generations.
When people stop attending church
and or taking children to church, they
have effectively stopped their grandchildren and great grandchildren going to
church as well. So that today we have several decades of people who have not
had any contact with Christian teaching whatsoever, and that means no spiritual
grounding in their lives at all. And that is where we are as a country, with
people largely adrift in terms of a spiritual anchor to inform their ethical,
moral and life decisions.
Each church has to play their part to encourage and welcome to
church those who feel that it is not for them. Some of them might have a good
reason to think we don’t want them. They might have had an unfortunate contact
with a vicar or a churchgoer, who put them off and they thought, well if that
is what being a Christians is like, I don’t want to know.
In the United States, I know members of a Church sometimes go out with a Pastor to preach the gospel. If you did that in the United Kingdom someone would be getting arrested. We don’t do God, for activists would complain
The second parable in verses in 30/34 where Jesus said the Kingdom of God was
like a mustard seed. His listeners would
recognise this as a saying, ‘small as a mustard seed.’ That seed was so small that if it blew out of
your hand you would not be able to find it. But it grew, Jesus said, to be a
tree which housed the birds.
A tree was used in Biblical terms to mean an empire, and birds to
be nations, which were part of that empire.
So Jesus was saying that there was no limit to which the Kingdom could
grow reaching many nations.
From that small band of Apostles working from part of a land no
bigger than Wales, grew a religion which now embraces the world, with two
billion followers. We must never feel
our efforts are too small to start working for the Lord. Never be put off by small beginnings. We start off small, but when the effort is
repeated, the effect can be big.
This parable is
speaking to us directly about the Church which began so small. As Christianity spread across the world,
without any radio, television, newspapers, or any of the aids we have, so it
can do so again.
I have often said I am so fond of the American Church. They use every advertising method available. We are just going to have an election and
candidates have been delivering literature telling us all about their Party and
all the wonderful things they can offer us. President Obama won a landslide
election by regular communication by emails to great effect. Churches could use such a method.
I don’t think personal
visits from Minsters or their representatives is effective these days, but
certainly letting people know of the Church by letters, or when possible by
e-mail, would be beneficial and indeed produce results.
I have just written an
article for another village magazine in which I stress the need for people to
return to Church and be part of restoring Christian values which this country
so badly needs. Sometimes we need to be
like the farmer plant a seed of faith into someone’s mind casually and let it
develop.
A Vicar told me how he was invited to preach at a village Church
some distance from his own Church. He
said he felt demoralised after doing so, it all seemed so lifeless. Some years later he passed through the same
village and stopped at the village shop.
The keeper told him how the word he preached that night made him turn
back to Church and become a devoted servant, who in turn brought others to know
the Lord..
I still get letters from people up North who were in the Churches
I served and it makes everything so
worthwhile and so satisfying in a humble way.
You may say you haven’t the talent. But that is just the point you
don’t have to have much ability, you just allow God to use you. He has given us much more than we could ever
imagine If God is all that we claim Him
to be how can we limit His power.
A teacher once wrote of
a pupil in his class and said, this boy is no scholar and has failed twice in
his grade. He has a stubborn streak and
is rebellious. He seems at times perverse in his ability to learn. He has not
made the most of his opportunities and never will. That man wrote great works of history and
became our greatest Prime Minister of all time (Winston Churchill)
Don’t be like the
chairman of a PCC who opened the meeting with the prayer,’’ ‘almighty and
omnipotent God, etc’, and then addressed the members with the words, the
situation here is utterly hopeless.
What you can do as a
church might seem small. It may seem insignificant but of course the message of
the parables which we have heard this morning is that it might seem small, you
might not even notice the effect, but this is how the kingdom is grown.
A village would seem
normally to be an ideal setting to start a Church return, but realistically
these days it is not practical in most cases.
A permanent Minister is vital so that there is consistent style of
teaching, which so rarely happens. In
addition, the Minister needs to be someone ready and willing to evangelise.
Mark is telling us God
is at much work today as He ever was sowing by His Word into our hearts and
lives and we must be ready to serve Him when the opportunity arises.
May
God bless these words and may His Holy Name be glorified
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