(6)
Scripture Reading: Mark 1:14-15; 4:3, 26, 29; 1 Pet. 1:23; 1 John 3:9; 1 Cor. 3:9; Rev. 14:14-16
In this message we shall consider a matter that is very mysterious. A mystery is something that cannot easily be understood. The mystery we shall consider in this message is the mystery of the Lord Jesus as the Sower, the seed, and the kingdom. The Sower, the seed, and the kingdom are all part of a wonderful, all-inclusive Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. As we shall see, in the Gospel of Mark the Sower is a person, the seed is a person, and the kingdom is a person.
In Luke 17:20 the Lord was “questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God comes.” In His answer He said to them, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, Look, here! Or, There! For behold, the kingdom of God is among you.” When considered along with Luke 17:22-24, these verses prove that the kingdom of God is the Savior Himself, who was among the Pharisees when He was asked by them concerning the kingdom. Because the Lord Himself is the kingdom, wherever He is, there is the kingdom of God.
After the Lord Jesus was baptized, the Spirit descended upon Him. Then the Lord went forth in His move to work, to minister. We have seen that with Him there was no difference between life and work. His life was His work, and His work was His life. We may say that the Lord Jesus lived His work; He lived a ministry. The Lord lived a life of preaching, teaching, casting out demons, healing the sick, and cleansing the lepers. With Him there was just one thing — His life, which was His work, His move, and His ministry. Whatever the Lord did, whatever He spoke, and wherever He went were all part of His life.
As the Lord Jesus moved on earth, living a life of God, He preached the gospel to the miserable people, He taught the truth to those in darkness, He cast out demons from the possessed ones, He healed the sick, and He cleansed the leper. This is portrayed in chapter one of the Gospel of Mark. Then in Mark 2 and 3 we see that the Lord Jesus brought people into the forgiveness of sins and into joyfully feasting with Himself as their righteousness to cover them outwardly and as their life to fill them inwardly. Then He became their satisfaction and liberation.
In chapter four of Mark the Lord Jesus went to the seashore. Mark 4:1 says, “And again He began to teach beside the sea; and a very great crowd was gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat to sit in the sea, and all the crowd were on the land facing toward the sea.” Here the boat signifies the church, the land signifies the Jewish nation, and the sea signifies the Gentiles.
For the Lord Jesus the boat in Mark 4 became His Holy of Holies. When some hear this, they may say, “How can you say that a boat became the Holy of Holies for the Lord Jesus? The Holy of Holies must be in the temple.” To this I would say that whether a certain place is the Holy of Holies does not depend on the place itself; rather, it depends on God. If God is in a certain place, that place is the Holy of Holies. This means that, since the Lord Jesus is the very God, the boat in which He was speaking in Mark 4 was the Holy of Holies. When the Lord was speaking from the boat, it was actually God who was speaking. In the Old Testament God spoke in the Holy of Holies, from the covering of the ark. By the time of Mark 4, that Holy of Holies had been passed over by God, and the new Holy of Holies was the boat where the Lord Jesus was.
If you do not believe this, it may be an indication that you still have not been terminated. If you have been terminated, you will see that in Mark 4 the disciples were with the Lord Jesus in the boat that was the Holy of Holies. Remember, the One in this boat speaking the word was actually the very God. The God who spoke in the Holy of Holies was now speaking in the boat. In this Holy of Holies a Man was speaking, and this Man was the speaking God.
We have seen that in His gospel service, the Lord Jesus preached, taught, cast out demons, healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, and brought those whom He touched into the forgiveness of sins, and into a condition of feasting with Him, with joy, satisfaction, and freedom. It may have been that those who touched Him wondered what had actually happened to them. In chapter four we have a definition of what the Lord Jesus was doing in chapters one through three.
In 4:1, after ministering in the three foregoing chapters, the Lord Jesus got into a boat and taught the people “many things in parables” (v. 2). The first parable was the parable of the sower (4:1-20), which opens with the words, “Behold, the sower went out to sow” (v. 3). This indicates that in the first three chapters of the Gospel of Mark whatever the Lord did was a sowing of the seed. For example in 1:14-20 the Lord Jesus preached the gospel, saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has drawn near. Repent and believe in the gospel!” (v. 15). Since He preached the gospel, we may regard the Lord merely as a preacher. But the parable of the sower indicates that the Lord was a Sower. This means that in preaching the gospel He was not merely a preacher but also a Sower. There is a great difference between a sower and a preacher. Apparently the Lord Jesus was a preacher; actually He was a Sower.
The situation is the same regarding teaching the truth, casting out demons, healing the sick, and cleansing the leper. Apparently the Lord was a teacher; actually He was a Sower. Likewise, apparently He was One casting out demons, healing the sick, and cleansing the leper. But in doing all these things, He was actually a Sower. When He preached the gospel, taught the truth, cast out demons, healed the sick, and cleansed the leper, He was a Sower sowing the seed.
Mark 4 reveals that the life that lives according to God’s New Testament economy is a sowing life. The Lord Jesus as the Sower sowed Himself as a seed into the people who were touched by Him. We may take the case of the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law as an illustration. When the Lord Jesus came to Peter’s mother-in-law, He healed her. Concerning this, 1:31 says, “And coming to her, He raised her up, holding her hand; and the fever left her, and she served them.” Do you think that here the Lord was doing nothing more than healing? To be sure, He was doing much more. That healing was actually a sowing. When the Lord healed Peter’s mother-in-law, something of Himself was sown into her. Of course, at the time she probably was not conscious of anything being sown into her. Nevertheless, it is a fact, a reality, that something out from the sowing Savior had been imparted to her.
The Lord was also sowing the seed when He touched the leper and cleansed him (1:40-45). The leper said to the Lord, “If You are willing, You can cleanse me!” (v. 40). Moved with compassion, the Lord touched him and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed! And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed” (vv. 41-42). When the Lord Jesus touched the leper and cleansed him, do you not believe that something from Him was sown into the one who was cleansed? As the Lord was cleansing the leper, He was sowing Himself into him.
The cleansed leper and Peter’s mother-in-law probably were not conscious of the fact that something had been sown into them by the Lord. However, a great change took place in their being. After Peter’s mother-in-law was healed, she served, and after the leper was cleansed, he moved in a different way. This indicates that something of the Lord had been sown into them, even though they were not conscious of it and could not explain what had taken place. In chapter four of the Gospel of Mark the Lord reveals that what was imparted to those with whom He had come in contact was the seed sown into them by Himself as the Sower. The Sower, therefore, is the wonderful Person of the Lord Jesus.
In the parable of the sower there is no mention of the kingdom of God. But in the parable of the seed (4:26-29) the Lord Jesus speaks clearly of the kingdom. In verse 26 He says, “So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed on the earth.” This reveals that the kingdom of God is a seed.
Do you know of any Christian writings which point out that the kingdom of God is a seed? Most Bible teachers, when they come to the matter of the kingdom of God, would say that the kingdom is either a dispensation for God to exercise His government, or a sphere for God to exercise His authority to accomplish His purpose. Some would say that the kingdom of God was first among the children of Israel. However, when the Jews rejected the Lord Jesus, some say that the kingdom was suspended and will continue to be suspended until the coming age, the age of the kingdom. Furthermore, these teachers would say that the present age is not the kingdom age but is merely the church age. They say that the coming age, the age of the millennium, will be the age of the kingdom, which will be followed by the eternal kingdom in the new heaven and the new earth. Although I do not say that teachings such as these do not have ground in the Scriptures, I would call your attention to the fact that this is not what is taught concerning the kingdom in 4:26-29. Here the Lord’s word reveals that the kingdom of God is a seed.
The Gospel of Mark opens with these words: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” What is the gospel? Perhaps you would say the gospel is the glad tidings, the good news. This, of course, is correct. But what is the good news? When I was young, I was taught that the good news is what is spoken of in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that every one who believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” There can be no doubt that this certainly is good news. However, in the Gospel of Mark we do not read anything about God loving the world. Instead, 1:1 speaks of the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then we are told in 1:14 that the Lord Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God. In His preaching He declared, “Repent and believe in the gospel!” There is not a word here that the Lord Jesus preached about God’s love or that He said the time had come to believe in Him that we might have eternal life. In 1:15 the Lord Jesus said that the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has drawn near. Therefore, we need to repent and believe in the gospel.
If we read 1:14 and 15 carefully, we shall realize that the gospel is actually the kingdom of God. Verse 14 says that the Lord Jesus preached the gospel of God, and verse 15 says that the Lord declared that the kingdom of God had drawn near. Because the kingdom of God had drawn near, people should repent and believe in the gospel. Here we see that the gospel and the kingdom of God are synonymous. The kingdom is the gospel, and the gospel is the kingdom.
If the kingdom of God were only a sphere for God to exercise His authority or a dispensation for Him to administer His government, it is not likely that such a kingdom could be a gospel to us. But in Mark it is revealed that the kingdom of God is the gospel. When the Lord Jesus preached the gospel of God, He preached the kingdom of God.
What is the kingdom of God? Strictly speaking, the kingdom of God is a Person, and this Person is the Son of God incarnated to be the Son of Man with the name Jesus Christ. First this wonderful Person came as the Sower. Second, He is the seed sown by Himself as the Sower. When the Sower sows the seed into us, this is the kingdom. We may say that, according to 1 Corinthians 3:9, the kingdom is God’s farm. Therefore, the kingdom is the Sower sowing the seed into human beings. Today this kingdom is the farm of God, and this farm is the proper church life.
What is growing on God’s farm? God’s farm grows Christ. This is the concept not only of the Gospel of Mark, but also of other books in the New Testament. For example, in his first Epistle Peter says, “Having been regenerated, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Pet. 1:23). Here we see that we have been born of God because we have the seed of God within us.
In the last book of the New Testament, Revelation, we have the harvest of the seed sown in the Gospels. In the Gospels the Lord Jesus was the Sower. But in Revelation 14 He will come as the Reaper. What was sown by the Lord in the Gospels grows in the Epistles. Eventually, it will ripen in Revelation 14, and there will be the harvest. Consider Revelation 14:14 and 15: “And I saw, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud One sitting like the Son of Man, having a golden crown on His head and a sharp sickle in His hand. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, Send forth Your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.” This harvest will be the aggregate of the mature believers. Eventually, these believers will be kings with the Lord Jesus.
We have been emphasizing the fact that in the Gospel of Mark we see a life that lives according to God’s New Testament economy. Whatever the Lord Jesus did in preaching, teaching, casting out demons, healing the sick, and cleansing the leper was according to the New Testament economy of God. Now in chapter four of Mark we see that this life is a sowing life. The life that is according to and for God’s New Testament economy is a life of sowing.
