What The Farm Laborers Can Do And What They Cannot Do

Introduction This chapter of Mark shows us the mystery of God’s kingdom, where seed grows beyond human understanding. Let us embrace our role as sowers, faithfully spreading the Word, trusting God for growth, and rejoicing in every soul He brings to the harvest.

“And he said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.’” Mark 4:26–29 (ESV) There is a lesson here for those who are laborers together with God. It is a parable for all who are involved in the kingdom of God. It will be of little value to those who remain in the kingdom of darkness, because they are not called to sow good seed. “But to the wicked God says: ‘What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips?’” But all who are commissioned to scatter seed for the Royal Farmer will be glad to understand how the harvest is being prepared for the One they serve. Listen, then, you who sow beside all waters; you who diligently seek to fill the storehouses of heaven—listen, and may the Spirit of God speak to you as much as you are able to receive it.

We shall first learn from our text what we can do and what we cannot do. “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.” This is what the gracious worker can do. “He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.” This is what he cannot do. Once the seed is sown, it is beyond human control, and a person can neither make it sprout nor grow. Yet before long the worker appears again: “But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle.” We can reap in due season, and it is both our duty and our privilege to do so. You see, then, that there is a place for the worker at the beginning; though there is no place for him in the middle process, another opportunity is given to him later when what he sowed has produced fruit.

Notice, then, that we can sow. Anyone who has received the knowledge of the grace of God in their heart can teach others. I use the word “man” to include all who know the Lord, whether male or female. We cannot all teach in the same way, for we do not all have the same gifts; to one is given one talent and to another ten. Neither do we all have the same opportunities, for one lives in obscurity and another has far-reaching influence. Yet there is not within the family of God a single small hand that cannot drop its own little seed into the ground. There is not a person among us who needs to stand idle, for work suited to their strength is waiting for them. There is not a saved woman who is left without a holy task; let her do it and receive the approving word, “She has done what she could.”

We should never complain that we cannot do everything if God allows us to do this one thing; for sowing the good seed is work that requires all our wisdom, strength, love, and care. Holy seed- sowing should be embraced as our highest calling, and it is not an unworthy pursuit for the noblest life. You will need heavenly teaching so that you may carefully choose good wheat and keep it free from the weeds of error. You will need guidance to remove from it your own thoughts and opinions, for these may not align with the mind of God. People are not saved by our words but by God’s Word. We need grace to understand the gospel correctly and to teach all of it. To different people we must wisely bring forward that part of God’s Word that best speaks to their conscience, for much may depend on a word spoken at the right time.

Having selected the seed, we will have plenty of work if we go out and sow it everywhere, for every day brings opportunity and every gathering presents an opening. “In the morning sow your seed, and at evening withhold not your hand.” “Blessed are you who sow beside all waters.” Wise sowers recognise favourable opportunities and gladly seize them. There are times when sowing would clearly be wasted because the soil is not ready. After a shower, or before one, or at whatever time the experienced farmer knows is best, that is when we must be active. While we are to serve God at all times, there are seasons when speaking would be like throwing pearls before pigs, and there are other times when silence would be a serious sin. Those who are lazy during plowing and sowing season are truly lazy, because they not only waste the day but lose the year.

If you watch for souls and make use of favorable hours and softened moments, you will not complain about a lack of opportunity. Even if you are never called to water or to reap, your role is large enough if you faithfully fulfill the work of the sower.

Though it may seem small to teach the simple truth of the gospel, it is essential. How are people to hear without someone teaching them? Servants of God, the seed of the Word is not like thistle- down carried by every wind. The wheat of the kingdom requires a human hand to sow it, and without such action it will not enter people’s hearts or bring forth fruit to the glory of God. The preaching of the gospel is necessary in every age. God grant that our country may never be deprived of it. Even if the Lord were to send a famine of bread and water, may He never send a famine of His Word. “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”

Scatter the seed of the kingdom, then, for this is essential to the harvest.

This seed must be sown often, for many enemies oppose the wheat, and if you do not repeat your sowing you may never see a harvest. The seed must be sown everywhere, for there are no parts of the world you can afford to leave untouched, hoping they will produce fruit on their own. You must not leave the rich and educated thinking the gospel will surely reach them without effort, for pride often keeps them from God. You must not leave the poor and uneducated thinking they will naturally sense their need for Christ. They may sink lower and lower unless you lift them with the gospel. No group of people, no type of mind, may be neglected. Everywhere we must preach the Word, in season and out of season. I have heard that Captain Cook, the well-known explorer, carried a small packet of English seeds wherever he traveled and scattered them wherever he landed, leaving flowers and herbs from his homeland across the world. Imitate him wherever you go; sow spiritual seed in every place your foot steps.

Now let us consider what you cannot do. After the seed has left your hand, you cannot cause it to produce life. You cannot make it grow, because you do not know how it grows. The text says, “He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.” What is beyond our understanding is certainly beyond our power. Can you make a seed germinate? You may place it in warmth and moisture so that it swells and breaks open, but the act of germination itself is beyond you. How does it happen? We do not know. After it begins to grow, can you make it develop into leaf and stem? No. When the blade becomes the ear, can you ripen it? It will ripen, but not by your power.

You cannot participate in the inner process, though you may create favorable conditions. Life is a mystery. Growth is a mystery. Ripening is a mystery. These are sealed fountains beyond human control. This is equally true of the life of God in the heart. The Word enters the soul and takes root—we do not know how. Naturally, people resist the Word, yet it enters and transforms them so that they come to love it. Their nature is renewed so that instead of producing sin, it produces repentance, faith, and love. We do not know how. How the Spirit of God works on the human mind, how He creates a new heart and right spirit, how we are born again to a living hope—we cannot explain. The Holy Spirit enters us; we do not see Him, hear Him, or feel His touch physically, yet He accomplishes a powerful work within us that becomes evident over time. We know His work is described as a new creation, a resurrection, a making alive from the dead; but these words only cover our ignorance of the method. Since we do not understand how He works, we certainly cannot take over His work. We cannot create, we cannot give life, we cannot transform, we cannot regenerate, we cannot save.

When God has carried out this hidden work in the growth of the seed, what follows? We can reap the ripe grain. After a time, God the Holy Spirit uses His servants again. When the living seed has produced first the blade of thought, then the green ear of conviction, and finally faith—like full grain in the ear—the Christian worker returns to service, for he can reap. “But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle.” This does not refer to the final day of judgment, which is not within the scope of this parable. It clearly refers to a human sower and reaper. The reaping Jesus speaks of here is the kind He mentioned when He said to His disciples, “Lift up your eyes, and see that the fields are white for harvest.” After sowing in the hearts of the Samaritans and seeing faith begin to appear, the Lord Jesus declared, “The fields are white for harvest.” The apostle says, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” Our Lord said to His disciples, “I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor.” Is there not also this promise: “And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up”?

Christian workers begin their harvest work by watching for signs of faith in Christ. They are eager to see the first blade and glad to see the ripening ear. They may hope that people believe, but they long to be sure. When they are persuaded that faith is truly present, they begin to encourage, congratulate, and comfort. They know the new believer needs to be gathered into the barn of Christian fellowship to protect them from many dangers.

No wise farmer leaves ripe grain exposed to hail, mildew, or birds. Likewise, no true believer should remain outside the fellowship of the church. They should be welcomed into the church with the joy that accompanies bringing in sheaves. The worker watches carefully, and when the right time comes, he gathers in the converts so they may be cared for by the church, separated from the world, shielded from temptation, and kept for the Lord. He does this promptly, because the text says, “at once he puts in the sickle.” He does not delay in cold suspicion. When faith is evident, he encourages open confession and says to the new believer, “Have you confessed your faith? Is it not time to do so openly? Has not Jesus commanded the believer to be baptized? If you love Him, keep His commandments.” He does not rest until the convert is brought into fellowship with the faithful. For our work is only half complete when people are made disciples and baptized. We must then encourage, instruct, strengthen, comfort, and help them in every difficulty. What does the Savior say? “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

Notice, then, the scope and limit of our work. We can bring the truth to people, but the Lord alone can bless it. The living and growing of the Word within the soul belongs to God alone. When that hidden work of growth is complete, we can gather the saved into the church. For Christ to be formed in a person—the hope of glory—is not our work; that remains God’s. But when Christ has indeed been formed in them, to recognize His image and say, “Come in, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world,” is our duty and joy. Creating divine life belongs to God; nurturing it belongs to us. Causing hidden life to grow belongs to the Lord; recognizing its development and gathering it in belongs to the faithful, just as it is written, “But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

This, then, is our first lesson: we see what we can do and what we cannot do. II. Our second heading is similar to the first and concerns what we can know and what we cannot know.

First, what we can know. We can know that when we have sown the good seed of the Word, it will grow, because God has promised it. Not every grain in every place—for some will be taken by birds, some destroyed by worms, and some scorched by the sun—but as a general rule, God’s Word will not fail. As it is written, “so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” This we can know. We can also know that once the seed takes root it will continue to grow. It is not a dream or a passing image that disappears, but a living force that moves from the blade to the ear, and under God’s blessing develops into true salvation, becoming like “the full grain in the ear.” With God’s help and blessing, our work of teaching will lead not only to thought and conviction but to conversion and eternal life.

We also know, because we are told, that the reason for this growth is chiefly that there is life in the Word itself. In the Word of God there is life, for it is written, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.” It is also called “the living and abiding word of God.” Living seeds naturally grow, and the reason the Word of God grows in people’s hearts is that it is the living Word of the living God. Where the word of a king is, there is power. We know this because Scripture teaches it. Is it not written, “Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth”?

Moreover, the earth, which in this parable represents the person, “produces by itself.” We must be careful in explaining this, for human hearts do not produce faith on their own; they are like hard rock where seed would perish. What it means is this: just as the earth, under the blessing of dew and rain and by God’s hidden working upon it, becomes ready to receive and hold the seed, so the human heart is made ready to receive and embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ. An awakened heart desires exactly what the Word of God provides. Moved by divine influence, the soul embraces the truth, and the truth embraces the soul, so that it lives within the heart and is energized there. A person’s love receives the love of God; a person’s faith, worked in them by the Spirit of God, believes the truth of God; a person’s hope, produced in them by the Holy Spirit, takes hold of the promises revealed. In this way, the heavenly seed grows in the soil of the soul. The life does not come from the one who preaches the Word; it is placed within the Word by the Holy Spirit. The life is not in your hand, but in the heart that is led by the Spirit to receive the truth. Salvation does not come from the preacher’s authority, but through the hearer’s personal conviction, personal faith, and personal love. This much we can know, and is it not enough for practical purposes?

Still, there is something we cannot know—a secret into which we cannot look. As I have said before, you cannot look inside a person and see exactly how the truth takes hold of the heart, or how the heart takes hold of the truth. Some people have examined their own feelings so closely that they have become discouraged and spiritually blind. Others have examined the feelings of young believers so strictly that they have harmed them rather than helped them. In God’s work there is more room for faith than for sight. The heavenly seed grows in secret. It must be buried out of sight, or there will be no harvest. Even if you kept the seed above ground and it sprouted, you still could not see the inner life force that moves it. “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Explain the new birth? Experience it, and you will know what it is.

There are secrets into which we cannot enter, because their light is too bright for human eyes. You cannot become all-knowing, for you are a creature, not the Creator. There will always be a realm that is not only unknown but unknowable to you. Your knowledge goes so far and no further. You may thank God for this, because it leaves room for faith and gives reason for prayer. Cry out to the Great Worker to do what you cannot do, so that when you see people saved you may give the Lord all the glory.

III. Thirdly, our text tells us what we may expect if we work for God, and what we may not expect.

According to this parable, we may expect to see fruit. The farmer scatters his seed, the seed sprouts and grows, and he naturally expects a harvest. I wish I could stir up the expectations of Christian workers, for I fear many work without faith. If you planted a garden or field and sowed seed, you would be greatly surprised and grieved if nothing came up. Yet many Christians seem content to work without expecting results. This is a miserable way to work—drawing up empty buckets year after year. Surely, either I must see some result of my labor and rejoice, or, if I see none, I must be deeply grieved if I am truly serving my Master. We ought to expect results. If we expected more, we would see more. Lack of expectation has been a great cause of failure among God’s workers.

But we must not expect every seed we sow to spring up immediately. Sometimes—glory be to God—the moment the Word is spoken people are converted, and the reaper overtakes the sower.

But it is not always so. Some have labored faithfully for years and seen little visible result, yet at last the harvest has come—a harvest that would never have been gathered if they had not persevered.

I believe this world will be converted to Christ—but not today, nor tomorrow, perhaps not for many generations. The sowing of centuries is not lost; it is moving toward its great conclusion.

Mushrooms may appear quickly, but an oak forest requires generations. It is ours to sow and to hope for quick reaping, yet we must remember that “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.” So we must expect results, but not lose heart if we must wait.

We should expect to see the good seed grow, but not always in our preferred way. Like children, we are often impatient. A boy plants seeds one day and digs them up the next to see if they are growing. Nothing will come of that, because he will not leave them alone long enough. So it is with impatient workers. They want immediate visible results, or they begin to distrust the Word.

Some preachers are so hurried that they allow no time for reflection, no space to count the cost, no opportunity for people to consider their ways and turn to the Lord with full commitment. Every other seed is allowed time to grow, but the seed of the Word must grow instantly before their eyes or they think nothing has happened. In their eagerness, they overheat the seed with fanaticism and destroy it. They convince people they are converted when they are not, and so prevent them from coming to a true saving knowledge of the truth. Some are kept from salvation because they are told they are already saved and are filled with pride before their hearts are truly broken. Perhaps if they had been taught to look for something deeper, they would not have been satisfied with shallow soil. Their growth appears rapid, but so is their decline. Let us confidently expect growth, but let us expect it in order: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

We may also expect the seed to ripen. By God’s grace our work will lead to genuine faith in those upon whom He works by His Word and Spirit. But we must not expect perfection at the beginning.

Many mistakes have been made here. A young person comes under conviction, and a well- meaning, experienced believer questions them deeply and severely. He looks for full maturity at once. He enters the field early in the season and complains that he sees no grain, only grass. Of course he sees no grain yet. He refuses to accept the blade as evidence of life and insists on full maturity immediately. If he had looked for the blade, he would have found it and been encouraged.

For my part, I am thankful to see even a faint desire, a weak longing, a sense of uneasiness about sin, or a craving for mercy. Should we not allow things to begin small?

Notice the blade of desire, then watch for more. Soon conviction and resolve will follow, and then a small faith—like a mustard seed—but certain to grow. “For who has despised the day of small things?” Do not examine a newborn believer to see if they are fully sound in doctrine according to your standards. They are far from that, and difficult questions will only trouble them. Speak to them about their sin and Christ as Savior, and in doing so you will water the growing ear until it becomes full grain. It may not look like wheat yet, but later you will say, “That is wheat indeed. I recognize it. This is a true ear of grain, and I gladly gather it among my Master’s sheaves.” If you cut down the blade, how will the ear grow? Expect grace in your converts, but do not expect glory yet.

IV. Finally, we consider what kind of sleep workers may take and what kind they may not take.

The man in the parable “sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.” Farming is said to be a good trade because it continues while the farmer sleeps. Our work is similar. When we serve our Master by sowing good seed, it grows even while we sleep.

How may a faithful worker for Christ rightly sleep? First, he may sleep with restful confidence.

Are you afraid that Christ’s kingdom will fail? Who asked you to worry for the ark of the Lord?

Are you anxious that the Almighty’s purposes will collapse? Such anxiety dishonors God. Will omnipotence be defeated? You would do better to sleep than to interfere like Uzzah. Rest patiently.

God’s purposes will stand. His kingdom will come. His chosen people will be saved. Christ “shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.” Take the sweet sleep God gives to His beloved—the sleep of full confidence—like Jesus sleeping in the stern of the boat during the storm. God’s cause has never been in danger and never will be. The seed is secured by omnipotence and will produce a harvest. “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”

Wait for the harvest, for the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in the hand of Jesus.

Take also the sleep of joyful expectation that leads to a hopeful waking. Rise each morning believing that the Lord rules over all things for His purposes and for the good of those who trust Him. Expect blessing during the day, and go to bed calmly trusting Him for tomorrow. If you never rest, you will not rise refreshed and ready to work. If you spent all night anxiously worrying, you would be unfit for service in the morning. So rest and be at peace, and work steadily and calmly, because the matter is safe in the Lord’s hands. “It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.”

Rest also because you have consciously committed your work into God’s hands. After speaking the Word, go to God in prayer, entrust the matter to Him, and do not fret. It cannot be in better hands. Leave it with Him who “works all things according to the counsel of his will.”

But do not sleep in carelessness. The farmer sows seed, but he does not forget it. He repairs fences, drives away birds, removes weeds, and guards against flooding. He does not watch the seed grow, but he has plenty else to do. He sleeps in proper measure and season, not like a lazy person. He never sleeps in indifference or inactivity, for every season demands work. One field is sown, but another waits. One crop is reaped, but another must be threshed and winnowed. A farmer’s work is never finished. His sleep is only a pause to give strength for continued labor. The parable teaches us to do all that lies within our responsibility, but not to intrude into God’s work. In teaching, we must labor diligently; but regarding the secret working of truth in the human heart, we must pray and rest, looking to the Lord for inward power.