Together For The Gospel 2010: Session #5

John MacArthur

The Theology of Sleep!

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Mark 4

This passage is a magna carta from Jesus on the topic of evangelism. Crowds were pressing in on Jesus. They were attracted by his power over demons, disease, and death. But as large as the crowds were and as fascinated as they were by His miracles, very few of them were true believers.

What is wrong? Why is it this way? That there are so few true believers? The flesh would respond by saying that we need a different strategy. This one isn’t really working. This is how the flesh always responds to evangelistic disappointment, to low numbers. It’s no different today.

In the wake of this, Jesus gives us a whole chapter on evangelistic instruction. Jesus spoke about the kingdom of God as the domain in which He reigns before He comes. It’s a field in which the crop grows, but the farmer goes has no idea how. The wonder of the gospel is that you sow the seed and you go to sleep and it grows. We don’t know how. The only human act in the work of the gospel is to sow and go to sleep. Paul uses this same imagery in 1 Corinthians 3. Spiritual birth and spiritual life, the seed that grows, is a divine miracle (John 3). When we look at the story of the thief on the cross, the only way that the one thief could embrace Jesus as Savior while the other mocked Him is because the power of God had come upon his soul. There’s no human explanation for that.

The parable calls us to sow the seed and go to sleep because we’re not in charge of the results. The earth produces by itself. The Greek term for “by itself” is where we get the word “automatic” from. It grows automatically. Because God makes it grow automatically. We are the means that God uses but we are not the power. Spiritual life and regeneration are divinely automatic. But there are essential elements in that divinely automatic operation that must be there.

How do we approach evangelism?

• Humility – because it’s really not in our power to do the work. We don’t want to live under that ridiculous illusion. In the work of evangelism, we are not the issue. The sower in the parables of Mark 4 isn’t described by adjectives because the work of the gospel doesn’t really have anything to do with him. It has everything to do with what the seed the sower sows, the Word of God. While salvation is divinely automatic, it is the work of God, it can’t occur apart from the message of the gospel clearly and fully communicated.

Now it happened that as he was praying alone, the disciples were with him. And he asked them, "Who do the crowds say that I am?" And they answered, "John the Baptist. But others say, Elijah, and others, that one of the prophets of old has risen." Then he said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" And Peter answered, "The Christ of God." And he strictly charged and commanded them to tell this to no one, saying, "The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
Luke 9:18-22

During his life and ministry, again and again Jesus told his followers not to keep quiet. He told them not to tell anyone when He healed people. He told them not to tell anyone when He raised people from the dead. He told them not to tell people when they realized He was the Messiah. Because He wanted them to wait until after He died and rose again to go and tell everyone that He was crucified and rose again for the salvation of sins.

What is the parable of the four soils about if it’s not about the sower? It’s about the soil. The soil represents the heart. We can sow the seed but we can’t change the heart. We can’t affect people’s hearts but we can communicate truth to their minds, the truth of the gospel.


• Obedience (Mark 4:21-22)– because we know we are the means by which the light comes. How will they hear without a preacher (Romans 10)? We are to be lights in the world. It’s not within our power to change hearts but it’s within our responsibility to be obedient to let our light shine so that God can use us to do His divine work in transforming hearts.


• Diligently (Mark 4:23-25)– usefulness in gospel labor is directly proportional to our sowing and our eternal reward.


• Confidence (Mark 4:30-32)– because we know that God has determined an exponential outcome. What’s going to be the final outcome? What should we expect with this little tiny seed kingdom? It explodes to become a tree in which all the nations find their shade.

We should sow the seed humbly, obediently, diligently, confidently, and leave the results to the Lord.