Mark 4:26-34 (NASB)
Parable of the Seed
26 And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; 27 and he goes to bed at night and gets up daily, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. 28 The soil produces crops by itself; first the stalk, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. 29 Now when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
Parable of the Mustard Seed
30 And He was saying, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is the smallest of all the seeds that are upon the soil, 32 yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants, and forms large branches, with the result that the birds of the sky can nest under its shade.”
33 And with many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to understand it; 34 and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.
Big Idea: God is in charge of the growth and breadth of His Kingdom, and He uses faithful believers to bring the lost into it.
Outline: Two descriptions of the Kingdom of God which help us grasp its mystery and its magnitude, and also encourage us to faithfully spread the Gospel.
Description #1 (Parable of the Seed): God’s sovereign power over the KOG’s growth
Description #2 (Parable of the Mustard Seed): God’s sovereign plan through humble means for the KOG’s breadth
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