Sermon Transcript:

This morning, we continue our series in Matthew. Over the last several weeks, we have been working through chapter 13 where Jesus began His parabolic discourse. Jesus is in a boat preaching these parables to the crowds surrounded at the beach. Jesus began with the parable of the Sower, which describes who will receive God’s Word and who will reject it. Jesus then explains to His disciples that the purpose of parables is both to reveal and conceal His message. We will see this morning Jesus speak two more parables; The parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the leaven.

Relevance: We will discover in these parables the sovereignty of God in the preservation of His people. The kingdom of heaven advances, not through human effort, but through Christ. Both parables are connected to this expansion.

Main Point: The kingdom of heaven expands, not through worldly means, but through the sufficiency of Christ working through His Church.

Transition: We begin first with the parable of the mustard seed.

• Parable of the mustard seed. (v.31-32).

Explanation: Verses 31-32.

Matthew 13:31-32, “31 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”

Jesus begins this parable by comparing the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed. What is a mustard seed? It is round and smooth and measures about 1-2 millimeters in diameter. If you were to hold a bunch of these seeds in your hand, it would look almost like grains of sand in your palm. The seed itself seems very small and insignificant. It was in fact one of the smallest seeds commonly known in the ancient Near East. So, imagine Jesus holding up one of these seeds. Then, as Jesus is holding the mustard seed, he points them to a mature mustard plant. There would be a stark contrast. After a mustard seed is planted and grows to maturity, they can grow up to 8-12 feet. It is larger than all the other garden plants and grows into a small tree-like plant. This plant also grows several branches. There are enough branches and the plant is large enough to provide shade and nests for the birds. 

• It would have been particularly surprising for the crowds who heard this compared to the kingdom of heaven. Why would Jesus compare God’s kingdom to something so small?

To understand this parable, we must remember what the people and particularly what the Jewish leaders expected. They were waiting for the conquering King who would overthrow Rome. And when He came, they expected immediate results. They wanted visible results. They wanted political freedom. Instead, they got a carpenter from Nazareth surrounded by fishermen and tax collectors. From a human perspective, the kingdom looked about as impressive as a mustard seed. However, it is the tiny little, itsy bitsy, mustard seed that illustrates the glorious kingdom of heaven and the unfolding story we find in the Word of God. This tiny seed reminds us that God’s work often looks unimpressive in its earliest stages. Yet throughout Scripture, God has always written history this way. He delights to accomplish His greatest works through what the world considers small.

The story begins with God’s creation. It was perfect, but then the problem of sin entered the fray. One couple, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God and thus everyone born from them would fall under the curse of sin and death. One man brought sin to everyone who ever existed. This sin would grow increasingly, but God in His grace and infinite wisdom, had a plan to redeem humanity to Himself. Even though Adam and Eve sinned, God promised from the beginning that a “seed” from this woman would one day crush the head of the serpent.

• Sin not only separated all of us from God, but it continually grew as wickedness increased. After a flood, we saw that the problem of sin wasn’t solved with Noah. Out of a pagan nation, God called an old guy named Abraham. He formed one nation from one family. It was through Israel that God would move the story forward, but the problem of sin wasn’t solved. They had Law. They had people, and they had land: All things that God had promised to Abraham. They had all that they were required to have to be God’s people but failed in keeping the Law. Even after Israel’s repeated failures, God preserved a faithful small remnant until finally the promised “seed” arrived in Christ.
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• The kingdom comes because the King has come. Jesus is the beginning of this kingdom, but He didn’t come with horses or firepower. He was born of a virgin, was a carpenter, and lived a life of humility. Not the way that many anticipated the Messiah would come. Though He was fully God and equal with the Father, He did not cling to His divinity but was a servant. He came to serve and not be served. He preached repentance, rather than establishing a throne. He was rejected by those whom He came to save and was crucified. All His friends abandoned Him. Jesus was innocent but was convicted like a criminal. His death was shameful and harsh. Christ’s death seemed to the world, a pitiful end of a cultist leader who ran out of steam. All seemed bleak. Until it wasn’t.

Colossians 2:13-15, “13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”

• The kingdom of heaven seemed small, but this is how God operates. He didn’t use political conquest to establish a throne. There were no legions of angels that came to save Christ off that cross. It was a bloody death and a risen body that was a catalyst for the expansion of the kingdom. It was precisely His death on a cross that disarmed the powers of the prince of the air that was ruling over this world!. It was His resurrection where Christ was victorious over death. It was His ascension that brought forth the indwelt Holy Spirit for the Apostles at Pentecost. It was there that the gospel spread like wildfire and the Church has since grown. The Church is the evidence of kingdom growth and expansion. People from every tribe, every tongue, and every nation have come to faith throughout the course of history, all because of what Christ has accomplished. It all goes through Him!

Illustration: I want you for a moment to think about where Rome is today. Their leaders have died. Its empire has fallen. Over the course of history, many great nations and kings have fallen and are dead and gone. But all over the world this morning, from villages in Africa to the underground Churches in Asia and churches all over the world, there are millions gathering to worship King Jesus. The tiny mustard seed has become the mature plant exactly as Jesus promised.

Application: That is evidence of the branches that have grown. Those who have put their faith and trust in Christ are the birds who make nests and find shade. It is His church, founded by Him, that we can gather and find rest. We are now His people who are brothers with Christ and have a good Father who loves us. Christians are those that have the living Spirit inside of them. And that includes all who would believe in the sufficiency of Christ in the gospel. It is those who know they are broken and weary. Those who recognize their weakness and need for a savior. It is those who recognize that it is by the grace of God they came to faith. The Church is made up of broken people who bank all their hope on the finished work of Christ. This has been going on for thousands of years. This is why every member of this Church is here this morning.

• The Church doesn’t exist today because of the heroic acts of the Old Testament heroes or the greatness of the apostles. 
• It has always been through the unfolding promises of Christ through the Scriptures from the beginning. It was the continued faithfulness of God through the Law and the Prophets. It was what Christ accomplished at the cross, in His resurrection, and when He returns to rule with those whom He has saved.
• We can be sure that all of what is happening at RGC is a part of that great story. It has been Christ who has sustained us, has brought growth, and will continue to carry us, as long as we continue to bank all of what we are doing on Christ. This church will only go as far as Christ will take us, so let us hear this parable of the mustard seed and trust Christ alone. I pray that when people look at our church, they would not see a filtered version of Christianity. One that looks cool, or is trendy, but that they would see an island of misfit toys, with the imprint of God’s grace all over it. That we would boast in Christ and Him alone. Know that Redeeming Grace Church isn’t just a blip on the globe, but an active part of God’s story. Don’t take it for granted. It is all by His grace that we are here. 
• If you are a member here, I pray your love for this local church will grow. That your mission would be to proclaim the gospel from the rooftops and make disciples of all nations. That you would grow in your love for these people, just as Christ loves them.
• Maybe, you are a believer and are sitting on the sidelines. Maybe you haven’t joined this or another Bible believing church. I want to challenge you this morning to consider the importance of membership in the local church. Don’t wander out in the scorching heat. Come to the mustard plant, where there are branches to make your home and shade to find rest. And don’t worry, there are other birds nestled in this tree who are willing to walk alongside you. To point you to the Scriptures, to pray with you, to help you with your needs. If you are curious to learn more about what the Bible says about membership, pick up one of the blue books off the resource table in the back.
• Let us remember that Christ died for His Church. If Christ died for His bride, then we as the bride should love the Church as well. Don’t leave here this morning without thinking about the importance of this.

Matthew 19:18b, “…I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Transition: We have seen in the parable of the mustard seed that God is building His kingdom, from small beginnings to its maturation through the Church. Tied to this parable is the parable of the leaven, where we see that the kingdom is active in every believer because of Christ.

• Parable of the leaven. (v.33).

Explanation: This is exactly what we see in the parable of the leaven.

Matthew 13:33, “33 He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”

In this parable, Jesus likens the kingdom of heaven to that of leaven. Now leaven, which is known as yeast today, is a substance that is added to dough that causes it to rise. I remember in my home economics class, we were taught how to make pizza. We were each given some flour and water. We would get these little packets of yeast and mix it with the flour and water and knead it into a ball of dough. Then, we would roll it out onto a pizza sheet. At first, nothing would happen, but then something amazing would happen. 

Over time, the living yeast would start to permeate the dough. We can’t really see this with our eyes, but what starts to happen is the living yeast begins to eat the sugars and release gasses to cause the bread to rise. It makes it lighter and softer. It adds texture to the crust. It adds flavor through fermentation. Over time, that small amount of yeast affects the entire lump of dough. The process was nearly invisible. It was gradual and the process was completed when the crust rose. Now, I may be making some of you hungry talking about this, but bear with me through the rest of the sermon. Maybe as you eat lunch later, you will think about how the kingdom of heaven does the same thing internally for each of us in Christ.

• This parable would have been very interesting to hear for the crowds.

Why is that the case? Leaven was often used in a negative sense. Jesus Himself associates the permeation of leaven to sin and the false teaching of the Pharisees. Paul describes the negative association two times in the New Testament relating to tolerating sin within the Church.

Galatians 5:7-9, “7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump.”

1 Corinthians 5:6-7, “6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.”

Leaven would have been commonly understood among the crowds as the permeation of evil. Yet, Christ uses leaven in this parable differently. He flips this meaning on its head. Even though sin is real, with its permeating affects in this world, there is also a hidden permeation of the gospel taking root inside each born-again believer. You, see? Here, Jesus is not emphasizing whether leaven is good or bad. He is drawing attention to how it works. Once a little bit is introduced, it spreads through the whole thing. His point is the kingdom quietly spreads until it permeates everything. The kingdom is growing, not because God’s children are doing a good job of growing it, but because of the active work of the Holy Spirit to transform each believer as different members of the body. 

• This is an important distinction, because we often want to take credit for Church growth. We sometimes want to pat ourselves on the back. Good sermon you preached today, Chris. Your prayers really helped that person be comforted. Well done in visiting that shut in. Now, are any of those things bad? No. In fact, God calls us to serve in various ways to serve one another in the body, but who gets the credit? It certainly is not me or Kevin, or Rachel, or Lynn. The growth begins when we are born-again and continues as the Word of God permeates the heart of every believer. All credit goes to Christ.
• Look again at this parable. It isn’t that the woman is doing the work of causing the leaven to permeate the dough. It is the living yeast that works gradually to bring that change. It was the hidden change in the hearts that caused the gospel to spread. As people began to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ, so did their message. There are many ways to grow a crowd, but real growth doesn’t revolve around numbers, but in Christlikeness of its people.

This is the sovereign work of grace in the life of the believer. God establishes His kingdom through Christ. When people hear the good news of Jesus, the Holy Spirit brings about a change in the heart of that sinful wicked person. They are then pulled out of death into life. Faith is born! It is primarily the message of the cross, where Jesus died in place of wicked sinners, so that they would be justified before a Holy God. And the truth is, we were all broken and wicked sinners, running the race toward our destruction. Oh, but by the grace of God, that we would be killed with Christ and resurrected with Him. That the breath of the living God would be breathed into our lungs and we would be made alive! God has been doing this for thousands of years. We could never boast in our own ability to lift ourselves out of the grave. It is never sinful man that advances the kingdom, though we try hard to do things our way. It is always God who gives the growth.

Illustration: A farmer can spend weeks preparing his garden. He can purchase the best seed, till the soil, plant every row with precision, water it faithfully, and pull out every weed. Even after all this work, there comes a moment when he can do nothing else. He cannot force the seed to grow. That growth belongs to God alone. 

• In the same way, the seeds of the gospel and biblical truth can only be spread by us. God must prepare the soil. We proclaim the gospel, we pray, we disciple, but only God can raise dead men to life. Only God can bring about this growth in unity. 

1 Corinthians 3:5-7, “5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.”

• Who am I then? Who are you then? We are but weak vessels clinging onto the beauty of Christ. This is the purpose of our Church. As Pastors here, we are simply to preach and teach the Word of God faithfully. We are to properly divide the Word of truth and serve it to you. We let God do the work of bringing understanding and growth. All of us are called to study and meditate on the Word of God and hold us accountable. We as the congregation are called to prayerfully feed upon the Word and allow it to permeate who we are. Once the promises of Christ begin to take hold in our hearts, we then respond in love toward one another. We care for the needs of one another. We look to serve one another when the garbage disposal breaks. We make hospital visits when we can. We carry one another’s burdens when they become too heavy. We cry with one another. In gentleness, we use the Word of God to hold one another accountable. We encourage and admonish one another in Christ, because it was Him who gave us new life. Our identities have changed because we have changed. This is the permeation of the gospel. A unified body of believers that have been changed and are continually being changed by the finished work of Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:12, “12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”

Conclusion

Clarification: As we close this morning, we remember that the expansion of the kingdom is both externally and internally represented here. 

• With the parable of the mustard seed, we can see visibly the expansion of the kingdom. The history of redemption had small beginnings like the tiny mustard seed. History agrees with the Word that God has established His kingdom from the beginning with a promise, and that promise was fulfilled in Christ. With the accomplished work of Christ, we have one man who did everything possible to bring us back into fellowship with the Father. He lived perfectly but died a sinner’s death. He was buried but defeated death. It was all to the glory of God alone. It was His grace and love for us that we are included in this grand story. Over the course of time, that mustard seed has matured with the proclamation of the gospel by the empowerment of the Spirit. The Church has grown despite much persecution and bloodshed. The bride of Christ has persevered despite an enemy that has sought to put a stop to it. The branches have grown. The birds of the air can build nests and find shade. All glory belongs to God!
• With the parable of the leaven, we can see the invisible permeation of the kingdom. The Church doesn’t just exist through human effort. This is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit which causes dead people to be alive. This is the power of Christ on each believer as they grow in holiness and in truth. As the leaven permeates the inner man, so does the work of Christ on each believer. They grow in love. They endure trials and hardships with full dependence on God. They mature in their understanding of God’s grace, and this takes a lifetime. Once that work is finished, we will enter glory risen like the finished bread.

Final Application: So, what does that mean for us now? I pray that we would walk away this morning with the relief that our Christian walk isn’t dependent on our own strength. Christ has established His Church, is still building it, and will bring it to completion. May our focus never be to build something big in terms of human success, but that we would drop to our knees in recognition of our weakness. That we would be prayer warriors that are solely dependent upon Christ and Him crucified. That we would rest that our identities are found as adopted sons and daughters of God. All because of the accomplished work of Christ. Jesus finished the work and ascended to the right hand of the Father. He is coming back soon. In Christ, we have already won the victory. May we never separate ourselves from the head, which is Christ. Let us always run to the sufficiency of His Word. All the rest is vanity.