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Scripture Reading: Mark 4:1-34
The word “kingdom,” no doubt, denotes some kind of ruling. To say that we are practicing the kingdom life means that we are under God’s ruling. In this message, however, we shall consider the kingdom of God from a very different point of view.
Let us begin our consideration of the kingdom by asking the following question: What is the gospel? We may say that the gospel is a wonderful Person, a wonderful God-man. The gospel tells us that one day the very God became incarnate. This wonderful One, God incarnate, was the God-man. When He reached the age of thirty, He came forth to preach the gospel. As we pointed out in a previous message, the gospel is the replacement of the entire Old Testament, for it is the fulfillment of the promises, prophecies, and types and it is also the removal of the law. With the coming of the God-man, Jesus Christ, the Old Testament was over. This One is Himself the gospel. The gospel, therefore, is this wonderful God-man.
According to the record of chapter four of the Gospel of Mark, we may say that the gospel is the wonderful God-man coming to sow Himself as a seed of life. This seed of life is conveyed in the Lord’s word. Concerning this, 4:2 and 3 say, “And He taught them many things in parables, and said to them in His teaching: Listen! Behold, the sower went out to sow.” In Greek the word “taught” is in the imperfect tense, indicating repeated action in the past. The word “sower” indicates that the Slave-Savior, who was the Son of God, came to sow Himself as the seed of life in His word (v. 14) into men’s hearts so that He might grow in them, live in them, and be expressed from within them. The seed sown here is the word that proceeded out of the mouth of the Slave-Savior. Hence, His word is the seed, and in this seed is the divine life. Actually, this seed of the divine life is the Lord Himself.
The seed sown in chapter four of Mark is the seed of the gospel. Just as a carnation seed is actually the carnation itself, so the seed of the gospel is the gospel itself. As the God-man, Jesus Christ is the seed of the gospel. When we speak of the seed of the gospel, we mean that this seed is the gospel, just as a carnation seed is a carnation.
In Mark 4 we have the seed of the gospel, or the gospel as a seed. According to 4:3, as the Lord was teaching He was sowing. This sowing was the Slave-Savior’s preaching of the gospel of God that brought in the kingdom of God (1:14-15). It was, as in 4:26, the sowing of this seed of life in the word spoken by the Slave-Savior. This indicates that His gospel service was to sow the divine life into the people whom He served. The growth of this life depends upon the condition of the ones served by Him, with its issue differing according to their various conditions, as portrayed in the parable of the sower (4:1-20).
The Lord Jesus sowed the seed into the human heart. In Mark 4 and Matthew 13 the human heart is likened to soil. Our heart is the field, the soil, into which the Lord Jesus has sown Himself as the seed of life, which is the seed of the gospel. In the parable of the sower, the Lord Jesus is both the Sower and the seed sown. As the Sower, the Lord sows Himself as the seed of life through His word.
In the parable of the sower itself there is no mention of the kingdom of God. For example, in 4:3 the Lord does not say anything about the kingdom; instead, He tells us that the sower went out to sow. Why is there no mention of the kingdom in 4:1-8? The reason is that, although the kingdom of God had drawn near, it had not yet come. But in 4:26 we see that the kingdom had come. This was the reason the Lord could say, “So is the kingdom of God.…” Then in 4:30 the Lord went on to ask, “How shall we liken the kingdom of God?” In the parable of the seed (vv. 26-29) and in the parable of the mustard seed (vv. 30-34) the kingdom of God was there. But in the first parable, the parable of the sower, the kingdom of God had not yet come. As we have seen, in this parable the seed of the kingdom is sown.
When the Lord sowed the seed of the kingdom of God, He sowed Himself into His disciples. Then this seed of the kingdom passed through a process of development within the disciples for three and a half years. As a result, when the day of Pentecost came, the kingdom of God was present with the disciples. The time from the Lord’s coming forth to preach the gospel until the day of Pentecost was less than four years. That was a period of time for the seed sown into the “earth” to grow. The seed continued to grow and develop until the day of Pentecost, when the kingdom was clearly present with Peter and the one hundred twenty.
It is easy to speak concerning the outward aspect of the kingdom. But it is difficult to talk about the kingdom of God in the inner way of life. We need to be impressed with the fact that the kingdom of God is very different from the kingdom of man. The kingdom of man is a matter of organization. The kingdom of God is not a matter of organization; rather, the kingdom of God is absolutely a matter of life.
What is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God is actually the God-man, Jesus Christ, sown as a seed into His believers. After this seed has been sown into them, it will grow in them and eventually develop into a kingdom.
Jesus Christ is the seed of the kingdom of God, and this seed has been sown into those who believe in Him. Now this seed is growing and developing within the believers. Eventually, this growth and development will have an issue, and the issue will be the kingdom. Then this issue, the kingdom, will bring all the Lord’s believers to reach the goal. This goal also is the kingdom. Chapter four of the Gospel of Mark serves the particular purpose of revealing the kingdom to us in this way.
In this message I am not concerned with a verse-by-verse study of 4:1-34, nor even with a study of the different parables. My burden is that we may see what the kingdom of God is. It is crucial for us to see that the gospel is the gospel of the kingdom of God. This gospel is actually the God-man, Jesus Christ, sown into us as a life seed, a seed which is the seed of the kingdom. This seed is now growing and developing in us. Eventually, a kingdom will issue from the growth and development of this seed.
If we say that in the Lord’s recovery we are practicing the kingdom life, we need to realize that this kingdom is not something of organization. No, this kingdom is something of the inner life, a life which is actually the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He has been sown into our being as a seed, and now He is growing and developing within us. Praise the Lord that this seed is in each one of us and is now growing and developing in us! The growth and development of this seed will issue in the kingdom. Furthermore, this kingdom will bring us to the destination so that God’s goal may be reached. Do you know what this goal is? This goal is the full development of the kingdom of God.
We have pointed out that the Gospel of Mark records the Lord’s activities. In the first three chapters we see the contents of the gospel service (1:14-45), the ways of carrying out the gospel service (2:1—3:6), and the auxiliary acts for the gospel service (3:7-35). Now in chapter four we see what the gospel is. According to this chapter, the gospel is the seed of life sown into those who believe in the Lord Jesus so that this seed might grow, develop, and issue in the kingdom. Apparently, the gospel is a matter of preaching, teaching, casting out demons, healing the sick, and cleansing the lepers. Actually, the intrinsic element of the gospel is the divine seed, the God-man, the incarnated God, sown into our being. This intrinsic element of the gospel has been neglected by many of today’s Christians.
Within the gospel there is an inner seed, and this seed, the intrinsic element of the gospel, is the God-man. Whenever we preach the gospel, we need to minister Christ to those who listen to us and receive our word, for within the gospel there is an intrinsic element. Whenever a person receives the gospel, he receives God incarnate as the intrinsic element, the seed, of the gospel. This means that as long as a person receives the gospel, he receives the seed of the gospel. Through the gospel the incarnated God is sown into his being.
There has been a theological argument among Christians concerning the dwelling of Christ within the believers. This argument concerns the question of whether or not Christ is actually in us. Some say that Christ is too great and that we are too small to contain Him. According to those who hold this concept, Christ can be in the heavens, but He cannot be in us. Therefore, according to this view, only the Holy Spirit as the representative of Christ is in us.
Some may admit that Christ the Son is in us, but they may deny that the Father is in us. They may go on to say that the Son and the Father are two separate Persons. In the Godhead, they claim, there are three separate Persons, and these separate Persons are the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Those who claim that the Son is in us but not the Father say that whereas the Son lives in us, the Father is on the throne in the heavens. Regarding the matter of the Father dwelling in us, we need to consider Paul’s word in Ephesians 4:6: “One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” According to this verse, the Father is over us, through us, and in us. How can we say, then, that the Father is not in us?
Both from the New Testament and our experience we know that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are in us. We have seen that Ephesians 4:6 indicates that the Father is in us. Colossians 1:27 and 2 Corinthians 13:5 prove strongly that Christ the Son is in us. John 14:17 and Romans 8:9 reveal that the Spirit dwells in us. Moreover, in John 14:23 the Lord Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make an abode with him.” Here we see that when the Son comes, the Father comes with Him. It is not the case that the Father remains in heaven and the Son comes to be in us. No, the Father and the Son together come to make an abode with the one who loves the Lord Jesus.
The Triune God is in us. The Triune God who dwells in us is the very seed of the gospel. We have seen that this seed is the God-man. Hence, the seed of the gospel is the Triune God in humanity.
In the case of the forgiving of the sins of the paralytic recorded in Mark 2, we see the Triune God in humanity. Here we see both the deity and the humanity of the Slave-Savior. The Slave-Savior knew the seekers’ faith, the sick one’s sins, and the scribes’ inward reasonings. This indicates that He was omniscient. Such omniscience, manifesting His divine attribute, unveiled His deity. However, the Slave-Savior went on in 2:10 to speak of Himself as the Son of Man. The Slave-Savior was the very God incarnated. As God incarnate, He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. He was outwardly in the likeness and fashion of man, even in the form of a slave, but inwardly He was God (Phil. 2:6-7). He was both the Slave-Savior and the God-Savior. Hence, He had not only the ability to save sinners, but also the authority to forgive their sins. In the incident recorded in 2:1-12, He forgave a man’s sins as God, but asserted that He was the Son of Man. This indicates that He was the true God and a real man. In Him we see both deity and humanity. According to chapter four, this wonderful One, the God-man, is the seed of the kingdom. This is exactly what this chapter teaches us.
Chapter four of the Gospel of Mark enables us to see that the gospel announced by John the Baptist and preached by the Lord Jesus Himself is a matter of the Triune God in humanity as a seed of life sown into our hearts. If we would know what the kingdom of God is, we need to see this very important matter.
In order to make this matter clear, I would like to borrow a term from biology. This term is the word “gene.” The Triune God in humanity sown into our being is the gene of the kingdom. We know that without human genes it is impossible to have human life. Our birth, our being, and our existence all came from a gene. Now we must see that the Triune God in humanity has been sown into us to be the gene of the kingdom. Praise the Lord that this gene is within us! Eventually, the kingdom will issue from this gene.
First, the kingdom is the issue of the gospel, and then it is the goal of the gospel. Between the issue and the goal we have the church. Do you know what the church is? The church is the continuation of the issue of the gene of the kingdom.
This understanding of the kingdom is certainly different from the superficial understanding of many Christians today. We have seen that one day the Triune God became a man named Jesus Christ, the God-man. In forgiving the paralytic in Mark 2, both the deity and the humanity of the Lord Jesus were manifested. Now this One, through the preaching of the gospel, has been sown into us. In order for us to contact Him today, there is no need for anyone to break through the roof as the zealous ones did in Mark 2. The Lord has been sown into our heart! The One who has been sown into us is the gene of the kingdom, the Triune God in humanity. This wonderful One is our God, Lord, Savior, Redeemer, Master, and life.
Because the God-man as the gene of the kingdom has been sown into us, we spontaneously love one another and enjoy marvelous fellowship. We may say that the church in the Lord’s recovery is the real melting pot of the different races, nationalities, and cultures. Actually, we are not only melted together — we are blended and mingled together. Do you know why we love one another? We love one another because of the gene that is within us. This gene contains the element with which we love one another.
Day by day the seed of the kingdom is growing and developing within us. I am burdened that we all be impressed with the fact that this seed, this gene, has been sown into us and that this is the Triune God incarnate, the very God in humanity. The One who forgave the paralytic is now in us as the seed of the kingdom.
Oh, may we all be burdened to tell others this good news! We may forget many things, but we should all remember the gene that is within us. The Triune God in humanity has been sown into us as a seed of life to grow, develop, and issue in the kingdom. The kingdom, then, is the issue of the gospel and will be the goal of the gospel. Between the issue and goal we have the church life as the continuation of the issue of the marvelous gene that is within us.
