Theology Of Sleep

The Theology of Sleep
Mark Chapter 4:26-29

John MacArthur preached at Together for the Gospel 2010 on the theology of sleep. I recommend going and checking out the session he did at www.t4g.org.
It puts a good reminder that God is sovereign when reading Mark 4:26-29. When you come face to face with the fact that my confidence is in the Lord & in His power, not in me.

The gospel cannot be spread if it really isn’t the true gospel. The thinking that more persuasive words and ingenuity result in more conversions inevitably result in adjusting (and eventually corrupting) the Gospel. Entrepreneurial types attempt to change the results by changing the message. The wonder of the gospel is this: you sow the seed, you go to sleep, and it grows. (Mark 4:27) We may be the means but we are not the power. We are the secondary agency.

The thief on the cross saw a beaten, rejected, half naked dying man on a cross, and believed. There was nothing impressive or convincing in that moment. The only explanation is the Spirit of God. There is no human explanation for the thief’s change of mind, heart and will. In my mind that is the greatest human conversion moment in the New Testament.


Spiritual regeneration is divinely automatic, but there are certain attitudes that must be present in evangelism: humility, obedience, diligence, confidence.
Humility– in parable of sower there is coming a massive supernatural harvest (100 fold is way beyond humanly possible yields). Note there are no adjectives to describe the sower. No qualifications. There’s nothing in the story about the sower, he just throws the seed. The story is not about the sower.
The seed– the harvest cannot happen without the Gospel. Why did Jesus tell people not to tell people about healings, not to tell people He was the messiah, because the Gospel isn’t miracles, it is the Gospel that Jesus was crucified and risen for our sins, and after that happened Jesus commanded them to preach it to all, for it is the power of God for salvation (Romans 1)
So, the sower isn’t important, you can’t change the seed? What about the soil? Do you try to change the soils? You can’t. So I don’t ever appeal to the emotions or will, because the fallen human soul is a “fertile ground for religiosity”. I always appeal to the mind, to their understanding.

We don’t have the power to change hearts, but we have the responsibility to shine the light that changes hearts. Diligence: those who sow sparingly reap sparingly. Your usefulness and your eternal reward is proportionate to your diligence.

We have confidence because we know that God has already determined the outcome, that the Kingdom will grow & flourish.