The Book of Mark #22 chapter 4:26-29
The Book of Mark
The Theology of Sleeping Well, pt. 1
Mark 4:26-29
 
Do you sleep well at night?  I know some of you sleep well in church, but what about at night?  There are several things, theologically speaking, that will allow you to sleep well.
 
For instance, if I believed I had to earn my salvation, I don’t think I could sleep very well.  How would you ever know if you had done enough?  If I believed I had to maintain my salvation, I don’t think I’d sleep very well. How could you ever be sure you’d done enough to “stay saved”?
 
If I believed I could lose my salvation, I don’t think I’d sleep very well.  How can a person know if they’ve been disobedient enough for God to take their salvation away?  There are lots of ways in which good, Biblical theology will help you get a good night’s sleep!
 
Another area is addressed by Jesus here in Mark 4 and it has to do with the salvation of souls.  If I believed that the salvation of souls depended on me, I don’t know that I could sleep well. I understand the horrors of eternal hell. I understand the wrath of God. I understand eternal judgment. I understand what’s at stake. It’s the desire of my heart to see people saved.
 
And personally, I think it should bother me and a lot of other people more that folks aren’t being saved more often.
But my confidence is in the Lord and in His power and not in me. So I can enjoy rest and get a good night’s sleep because I realize if I’m just faithful to do what God has instructed me to do, then I’ve met my responsibilities, and ultimately, the salvation of souls is up to God.
 
If you’ve been here the last few weeks, then you will remember chapter 4 is dealing primarily with evangelism.  In the first 20 verses, the Lord tells this story about seed and the various types of soil that receive the seed to illustrate the types of responses we can expect when we go out to share the gospel.
 
Then, in the next few verses, he tells a couple more parables that continue His message about evangelism.
 
verses 26 to 29
 
It is from this portion of the chapter that I have drawn my thought about sleeping well.  The wonder of the gospel is as a faithful, obedient servant of God  you sow the gospel and you go to sleep and it grows.
 
We have no control over that. We don’t know how that happens anymore than the farmer knows how that seed which is dead, or dormant in the ground, produces abundant life.
 
The only human responsibility we have is to sow the seed and go to sleep.  Everything else is completely , separated from the farmer and his ability.
 
Remember how Paul said it?  “Some sow, some water, and God does what? He gives the increase.”
The same thought is found in John 1:12-13. “But as  many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe on His name; who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
 
Spiritual, birth, spiritual life, seed that grows is a divine miracle.
 
IN fact, the word in the Greek that is translated “by itself” there in verse 26 is “automatos” which is literally “automatically”. That word is used only one other place in the New Testament and that is Acts 12:10 when Peter was released from his chains.  It says the gate opened “of its own accord”.   The gate opened automatically. Or we could say, “God opened the gate”.
 
We find the same thought here.  The crop grows automatically or the soil produces crops by itself. First the blade comes, then the head comes, then the mature grain in the head, and all the farmer can do is wait until it is fully grown and then he can harvest it.
 
That’s what allows us to sleep at night.  You never have to go home after visitation and say, “If only I’d said this or done that, then they might have been saved.”  I’ve had people say they don’t do evangelism because they don’t know what to say or how to say it.  Let me set your mind at ease.  You aren’t really all that important.  Remember what we learned last week.  Any sower will do if theya re sowing the right seed.
 
 
We may be the means but we are not the power. We may be the secondary agency but we are not the causing agency. We have no role but to sow the seed and go to sleep and let the work of God be done. And it will be done in the most amazing ways.
 
Now some people interpret this parable in a different way.  They say Jesus is the farmer coming back to judge. But that doesn’t work.  IT doesn’t even make sense.  It is told by Jesus in the context of evangelism.  This farmer goes to sleep and judgment is the product of omniscience not sleep. This is not Jesus in judgment. The farmer has been sleeping. Why would God just go to sleep in regard to the record of sin that leads to judgment?
 
This parable is in reference to evangelism and the principle is sow and sleep. The success of the gospel does not depend on your power or your manipulation or your evangelism skills.
 
Spiritual life and salvation is divinely automatic if some essential elements are in place.   So let me take a few moments to just touch on those essentials.  If we are going to successfully sow the seed of the gospel and sleep at night leaving the results to God, we must first of all sow
 
  1.  Humbly
 
verses 3-7
 
Now the disciples were very familiar with that aspect of the story.  The ground Jesus is describing is what they walked on every day.  They had seen those birds eating the seed fly away as they approached.
So they understood that. In fact, they understood every part of this parable.  They understood there was some soil that had bedrock underneath it that prevented roots from going deep.  They knew the power of weeds to interfere with productivity.  They were all very familiar with that.
 
What they weren’t familiar with was the surprise in the in
 
verse 8
 
The kind of harvest Jesus speaks about was unheard of.  But if they were discerning enough to put the pieces together and apply this element of the story to their work in the kingdom of God, this had to be good news as the Lord says to them in this little parable that there is coming a harvest that is going to be massive.
 
Now you know the story. There are three kinds of fruitless soil, the hard soil, the rocky soil, the weedy soil. There are three kinds of good soil, the thirty-fold, sixty-fold, and a hundred-fold.
 
Now our Lord wants to explain the parable so He does that only to His followers. Verse 10 says, “He pulls His followers to Himself alone and begins to explain to them because to them it is given to know these things. It is not given to the already rejecting nation who with their hardness of heart have cut themselves off from that opportunity.
 
And so He begins the explanation. I love this in verse 14. “The sower sows the Word.” This is so foundational, I just…I feel kind of foolish even saying it, but it should be obvious to all of us that there are no adjectives to describe the sower…the sower, anybody who throws seed…anybody. There are no qualifications for the sower. The sower is somebody who throws seed. It’s that simple.
 
That is not the issue here. In the work of evangelism, we are not the issue. It really doesn’t matter whether you have a beat-up, tattered burlap seed bag, or a designer seed bag. It really doesn’t matter the style of your seed bag. Anybody who throws seed is a sower and there are no adjectives to describe the sower.
 
So there’s nothing in the story about the sower. The seed, we know what that is. The sower sows the Word.  And while the salvation is divinely automatic and is the work of God, it cannot occur apart from the message of the gospel.
 
That means there is nothing for us to brag about or boast about or be proud of as far as our part is concerned.  It’s all about the cross so if you’re going to boast, boast in the Lord.
 
Paul said, “When I came to you, brethren, I didn’t come with superiority of speech or wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, in much trembling. My message, my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men but on the power of God.”
 
 
Paul understood it completely. You preach Christ crucified and risen, even if it’s rejected, even if it looks like it’s stupidity and shame, you preach Christ because to those who are the called on whom the Spirit blows, in whom life is generated divinely, automatically, this is the power of God to salvation.
 
So as far as the parable is concerned, the sower is anybody who sows the seed of the gospel.  No bragging rights.  No accolades.  No awards or recognition.  We are just sowers faithfully broadcasting the seed of the gospel.
 
So we are to sow the seed humbly.  That’s the first attitude. There are three more elements that are involved in this supernatural process that leads to salvation and we’ll look at those next time.
 
Let’s pray.
 
the seed.