The gospel contains within itself everything it needs to spread. People are converted through the Holy Spirit using the gospel—giving growth to the seed. The gospel doesn’t need my excellence. It doesn’t need my craftiness. It doesn’t need me to juice it up a bit or to make it nice and shiny or appealing. The gospel—the naked, simple, unadulterated gospel—is enough.

Describe the kingdom of God. What words do you use?

Amazing.

Awesome.

Wonderful.

Exponential.

Mighty.

Terrific.

What analogies would we use? I doubt you’d first think of what Jesus uses in Mark 4. “A sower went out to sow…” How incredibly boring is that? In our society that would be like saying “a fry cook puts in another batch of fries” or “a mechanic twists off an oil filter” or “a secretary files a piece of paper.”

The kingdom of God is like a farmer who goes out and plants a seed. Really?!?!?! Plants a seed? There is nothing exciting about this.

If we stick with Jesus’ analogy here it really doesn’t get any more exciting. The guy in his illustration plants the seed, and you’d expect him to work the ground, water the field, do all the good farmer-things you’re supposed to do. But he doesn’t. He sows the seed and then just waits.

This makes us uncomfortable. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day would have balked at this notion. They expected the kingdom to come because of their moral integrity. The Zealots (of which one of Jesus’ disciples was a part) expected the kingdom to come through a revolution—when the Jews finally decided to stop cowering to Rome. It seems to me that we like to think that God is in heaven just waiting anxiously for us to finally align everything so He can bring the kingdom.

But Jesus kind of shoot a hole in that theory of activity to bring about the kingdom.

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