The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
Beloved, consider this...
Wherever a believer is, there is the Kingdom of God...
For where a believer is present, there is a witnesses to our Lord and Savior.
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So, the Kingdom of God is hidden in various businesses around the world...
The Kingdom of God is hidden in various industries...
The Kingdom of God is hidden in the all kinds of professions...
The Kingdom of God is hidden in the education system...
The Kingdom of God is hidden in the various governments in every nation...
And the Kingdom of God is hidden in various homes all around our globe.
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Wherever a believer is, there is the Kingdom of God...
For where a believer is present, there is a witnesses to our Lord and Savior.
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And that there will be the focus of our study today...
The Kingdom of God.
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So, please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke.
We will conduct our study in Chapter 13 and focus on verses 18 through 21.
Our message this morning is titled “The Parables of the Mustard Seed and the Yeast.”
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As you are turning to our passage today please keep in mind this fact...
Jesus will present us with a teaching on the Kingdom of God...
And He will do it trough the illustrations of two parables.
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So, this morning we will cover three main points:
1) The Kingdom
2) The Mustard Seed
And...
3) The Yeast
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Heavenly Father...
You are so precious to your followers...
As it is Your breathe that fills our lungs...
It is Your grace that has allowed us to have a relationship with You...
And it is Your glory that is to be desired above all.
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Thank You for allowing us another Lord’s Day in which we can gather to worship You.
Thank You for giving us Your daily mercies...
And thank You for who You are Lord.
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Help us to never take our salvation for granted...
Help us to further advance Your kingdom...
And help us to never lose focus on You.
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And it is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
Amen.
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Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
18 He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?
19 It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”
20 And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?
21 It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) The Kingdom
1) The Kingdom
Verse 18: He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?
When looking at this verse, we need to immediately pause within the first three words...
You see, Beloved, the “therefore” at the beginning of verse 18, which we just read, demands that we read our passage today in relation to the healing account that we covered last week.
So, that account that we previously studied can be found Luke 13:10-17 and it says:
10 Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.
11 And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself.
12 When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.”
13 And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God.
14 But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”
15 Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it?
16 And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?”
17 As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him.
Now, when we review our passage from last week and combine it with our passage for today we can see a slight foreshadowing of the much more glorious growth of the kingdom of God that is awaiting all who follow Christ.
You see, as we covered in great lengths last week, the Lord had interrupted his teaching in a synagogue to heal a woman who had been crippled for eighteen years by a demon-caused illness.
That demonstration of His power over Satan’s kingdom revealed the presence of God’s kingdom...
And that ties directly into our message today.
For the Lord then continued His teaching with these two parables that we will cover in our second and third point...
And these parables they illustrate the truth that the divine kingdom...
That is both externally and internally...
That glorious divine kingdom would expand exponentially from its small beginnings that we first see with the incarnation of Jesus.
As New Testament theologian Darrell L. Bock says:
“The reason that Jesus mentions the parables here is that an exemplary exercise of that power has just occurred in the woman’s healing, showing the initial presence of kingdom power.
Its presence can only come to have greater extension and influence.”
You see, Beloved, we must consider Jesus words in passages like Matthew 12:28 in which He said:
28 But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
So, as we have seen many times over in our study of the Gospel of Luke up to this point...
Jesus is defeating Satan and his demons with every exorcism and even with the kind of healing He provided for this woman who was in bondage for eighteen years...
For her illness was caused do to demonic work...
Which is in the same light of Job’s ailment which was also directly caused by Satan.
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Now, those victories that Jesus has over Satan and his demons are also a sign that the Kingdom of God has officially come.
However, it should be noted that although the Kingdom of God has come...
It has still not yet come into full consummation...
That will not happen until after the final judgement...
And that is the the “already now” and “still in the future” aspect of the Kingdom of God.
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So, Beloved, consider what it says in Micah 4:1-8:
1 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it,
2 and many nations shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
3 He shall judge between many peoples, and shall decide disputes for strong nations far away; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore;
4 but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
5 For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever.
6 In that day, declares the Lord, I will assemble the lame and gather those who have been driven away and those whom I have afflicted;
7 and the lame I will make the remnant, and those who were cast off, a strong nation; and the Lord will reign over them in Mount Zion from this time forth and forevermore.
8 And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, the former dominion shall come, kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.
Now, many in Jesus day understood that the Messiah would bring about the Kingdom of God...
However, there mistake was that they thought the Kingdom of God was coming in full consummation right from the get go...
They thought it was something that would be clear to all that the kingdom has come.
So, although when the Kingdom of God comes into it’s fullness it will be obvious to the whole world...
As Revelation 11:15 says:
15 Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.”
In contrast, it’s origins will be far more humble and not observable to those who are spiritually blind...
As Luke 17:20–21 says:
20 Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed,
21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”
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So, the Pharisees where looking for the arrival of the Kingdom of God...
And they thought that of all people they would be able to see it coming first...
Yet, Jesus let them know that the Kingdom of God was already in their presence!
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Next, Jesus presents two illustrations to drive home the point of the Kingdom of God’s initial coming...
And it’s much greater fullness in the future...
And that takes us to our second point.
2) The Mustard Seed
2) The Mustard Seed
Verse 19: It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”
Before we get into the content of the parable...
It is a good idea to review the point of parables...
So, look with me at Matthew 13:34-35 which says:
34 All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable.
35 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet: “I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.”
So, much of Jesus’ teaching to the crowds was in parables...
The reason for this is that parables act as two sided blades...
One side is for the unfaithful...
They are confused by Jesus’ parables and are left in the darkness due to their hardness of heart...
On the other side you have those who God has chosen to have mercy on and reveals the truth of a parables meaning...
For example, here we are today, explaining the meaning of Jesus’ parables with the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Additionally, the Holy Spirit reveals to us the meaning of Jesus’ parables by the rest of Scripture...
So, it is Scripture interpreting Scripture...
When Jesus walked with the disciples He shared with them the meaning of difficult parables privately as Mark 4:34 says:
34 He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
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Next, let’s look at a some cultural context to help us better understand the context of this first parable.
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First off, the mustard seed would have been the smallest known seed to Jesus’ audience.
Second, the mustard “tree” refers to a large herbal plant that grows to the height of 8 to 12 feet.
So, Jesus highlights the enormous size of the final plant in comparison to the very small seed from which it grew.
Jesus’ intent is to highlight the Kingdom of God’s modest beginning and its glorious final state...
And what better way to do that than by comparing one of the smallest seed to a 12 foot tree that was large enough to be home for a bird and it’s nest.
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You see, Beloved, the Jews expected the Kingdom of God to come with apocalyptic power, bringing God’s judgment on all evil...
However, Jesus’ teaching that it would arrive in such an “insignificant” way was completely surprising to his audience.
In other words, Jewish expectation had been of the magnificent arrival of a grand kingdom all at once.
They never considered that its origins would be so modest...
In fact, Jesus’ own disciples did not originally understand this truth either...
This is why the disciples wondered what role they would have in ruling with Jesus.
For they expected that type of grand kingdom in their day...
They did not realize the the final state of the Kingdom of God would be in the future.
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As the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament on Luke says:
“The kingdom is best characterized in the current era not as an institution but as the presence of God’s power in a special group of people.
God’s presence is expressed through those who are allied to the bestower of salvific gifts.
The kingdom is not so much represented by any one location or institution as much as it is expressed through people of the believing community—at least until it becomes more visibly expressed upon Jesus’ return.
God’s rule has a current realm where he is especially active—the community of believers.
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Jesus’ current opponents are in powerful places, but that will not stop the kingdom from becoming a place of safety.
Such opposition will not stop it from covering the world.
Trees built with earthly hands, like that of Nebuchadnezzar, will become stumps, but the branches of God’s kingdom will bring shade forever.”
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Next, Jesus provides another parable to further help clarify His teaching on the Kingdom of God...
And that takes us to our third and final point.
3) The Yeast
3) The Yeast
Verses 20-21: And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”
Now, the “three measures of flour” is about fifty to sixty pounds of flour and would have produced enough bread to feed over 150 people.
So, we see how a minute quantity of yeast can permeate a large amount of dough to produce a large amount of bread.
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Now, Beloved, Leaven was a fermented substance mixed into bread dough that permeated it and caused it to swell up, bubble up, and expand.
Furthermore, Making bread was generally done by women, so in the parable a woman took the leaven and hid it in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.
Over time, the leaven would transform the dough into something far better than unleavened dough, which produces hard, dry, flat, less appetizing crackers.
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The parables contrast the apparently small and unnoticed arrival of the Kingdom of God (the “already now”) with its extensive and glorious consummation of the Kingdom of God when the Son of Man returns (the “not yet”).
Another parable Jesus used to describe the Kingdom of God is found in Mark 4:26–29 which says:
26 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.
27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.
28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
So, from inception to consummation...
The growth of the Kingdom of God is handles by God...
Our job is to bust be faithful...
He is His perfect timing will grow the Kingdom as He sees fit.
So, although many today are hostile towards the Gospel...
And Christian persecution is on the rise...
One day it is all going to change once Jesus returns, Beloved!
As Matthew 24:14 says:
14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
We must continue to strive and share the Gospel message...
We must continue to desire to see the Kingdom of God grow...
And it will in the end.
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Now, since God’s kingdom had already come, the call to repent should be heeded, for both Jesus’ hearers and we the readers of this passage for we are living in the last period of God’s grace.
Every day that passes is a day closer to the consummation of the Kingdom of God.
Although the present realization of the kingdom may appear insignificant (like a mustard seed or a little yeast), its power is already manifest, and its consummation will be immeasurable, Beloved.
So, do not lose hope!
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The contrast between the size of the mustard seed and the leaven at the start compared to their final state illustrates this point in both of our parables today.
It is this contrast between the beginning and the end, rather than the idea of growth, that is the point of the two parables.
So, Jesus’ point is that the consummation of God’s kingdom would be as different from its inception as a mature mustard plant was from its seed.
Theologian Robert H. Stein puts it this way:
“These two parables fit well the Lukan teaching that with Jesus’ coming the long-awaited kingdom had arrived.
Luke emphasized this theme more than any other Synoptic writer.
Yet the kingdom’s arrival, while evident to all whose hearts were right, had not been as expected.
While the demonic powers had been shaken and defeated, this world’s rulers were oblivious to its arrival.
They did not see that in the person of Jesus (and for Luke’s readers in the Spirit’s work in the life of the church) the kingdom was ‘now.’
When the consummation comes, however, the kingdom will be obvious for all to see, for it will be ‘on earth as it is in heaven.’
In that day what now appears to be as small as a mustard seed will be a great tree; what appears to be a little speck of yeast will be a large leavened mass.
For Luke’s readers these parables provided assurance that the already ‘now’ had arrived as well as assurance that the ‘not yet’ would soon come.”
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So, Beloved, as you go along on your walk with Christ...
Keep this top of mind...
Your work to share the Gospel with the world is not in vain.
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When they call you a bigot for sharing God’s truth...
It is not in vain!
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When they call you a a moron for sharing God’s truth...
It is not in vain!
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When they call you a clown for sharing God’s truth...
It is not in vain!
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When you are slandered for the name of Christ I want to give you some advice...
Take a look at your accusers knees...
Yes, that is right take a look at their knees...
And remind yourself daily of Philippians 2:10–11 which says this:
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
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Beloved, every knee will one day bow down to our Lord and Savior when His kingdom comes into its fullness!
The only difference is that some will be on their knees with tears of joy...
While others will be on their knees with tears of dread!
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
So, as this message comes to a close...
I would like you to consider this:
Try to imagine it is the year 1944 and Germany is at war with England.
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Now suppose you have dual citizenship in both Germany and England and you are living in Germany.
How will you be treated?
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Conversely, suppose you have dual citizenship in both Germany and England and you are living in England during the Blitz.
How would you be treated?
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In either case, you would be forced to renounce your citizenship in the opposing country and declare your loyalty to the country in which you found yourself in that dreadful time.
There would be no middle ground.
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They would have never allowed dual citizenship in Germany and England during WWII and we cannot have dual citizenship in this world.
We cannot belong to the Kingdom of God by living in Christ AND live in the kingdom of darkness at the same time.
They are diametrically and violently opposed to one another!
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The spiritual war going on for the hearts of men and women in this world is no less intense than the war that took place between the Axis and the Allies in WWII!
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The only difference would be the tactics.
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The evil one has us by the throat because of sin.
He wishes to destroy us not only in this life but in Hell forever where we will find ourselves with him and the rest of his horde.
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God, on the other hand, loves us so much that He sent His one and only Son to die on the cross of Calvary to make a way for our sins to be forgiven, to adopt us into His family and to give us eternal life.
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And it is now about Christ’s sacrifice that we bring our attention to.
Communion
Communion
As we begin our communion service, I want to invite every genuinely born-again believer in the room to partake in this act together.
If you do not yet know the Lord and do not have a relationship with Him...
Or if you are under church discipline from this church or another church...
Then I will ask that you wait until you have resolved your issue before participating.
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As you came in, you should have picked up a communion packet if you are joining us.
This has both the bread and the juice in a convenient package.
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If you have not received one of these, please raise your hand, and someone will get you one.
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Before we join in communion together, I would like us to consider 1 Corinthians 11:26:
26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
Regarding this verse, pastor Gerrit Scott Dawson says:
“The Lord’s Supper reveals that Jesus takes the worst we can do and makes it a sign of the best he does for us.
Within hours of that meal in the upper room, Jesus’s body would indeed be given and his blood poured out.
This dreadful tragedy accomplished our glorious salvation.
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In Communion, we enter both the power and the proclamation of Jesus’s saving death.
That participation should be thrilling.
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Sometimes, however, we get all tangled up about the Lord’s Supper.
We can so easily miss the point of this practice Jesus gave to his people.
The joyful expression of our union with Christ and one another becomes heavy with contentious questions.
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For example, we puzzle over what happens to the elements.
Jesus said, ‘This is my body.’
We wonder how literally he meant it.
We also stress over who may participate.
Some ministers in my tradition seem to take more time talking about who may not partake than actually inviting believers into the life-giving mystery of the meal.
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Then there are all the logistical issues.
We worry whether the bread must be unleavened as in the Passover.
Some insist the wine must be fermented, while others are adamant that grape juice will do.
Common cup, individual cups, or intinction (dipping the bread in the cup)?
Come forward or pass out?
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And unless we are from a long-established liturgical tradition, we discuss frequency.
Quarterly, monthly, weekly?
Practically speaking, Communion takes away time from singing and preaching, so it can feel like a nuisance.
Others worry that if we celebrate the Supper too often, it will become rote.
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This cascade of questions can suck the joy out of this precious sacrament Jesus gave us.
But perhaps if we dig under these encrusting controversies, we might once again reach the living heart of Communion.
It’s really not that far away.
We just return to that momentous night.
We consider how Jesus draws humanity at its worst into the triune God at his redemptive best.
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Jesus gives them the bread with the words, ‘This is my body.’
Then he shares with them the third cup of the Passover:
‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.’
The ancient symbols of bread and wine received new, deeper meaning in these moments.
Jesus dared to make the sacred Passover meal find its true fulfillment in himself.
The Lamb of God pledged himself to a new covenant that would be sealed in his blood.
At the meal, Jesus offered himself to them — just minutes before the arrest that would lead to his trial and torture and death.
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Jesus warns them that this night will bring them the shame of failing him.
But in the glow of the meal, the disciples feel brave.
‘Peter said to him, ‘Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!’ And all the disciples said the same.’
Yet minutes later, when Jesus asks three of them to keep watch while he prays in his agony, he returns to find them sleeping.
‘So, could you not watch with me one hour?’
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Soon, Judas arrives with the soldiers. ‘Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, ‘The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.’’
Moments before, those same traitorous lips had tasted the bread given by Jesus’s own hand.
With that same mouth, he marks Jesus for death.
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Before the mob, the bravado of Christ’s closest friends fades to fear.
‘Then all the disciples left him and fled.’
Even Peter would proclaim with an oath, ‘I do not know the man.’
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Jesus pledged himself in covenant as he gave them bread and wine.
But the disciples’ eager participation in the moment only highlighted their weakness to come.
Bread and wine would forever remind them of how they failed their Lord that night.
They were unable to stop his body being seized and his blood being let.
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And yet. One cannot steal what is already freely given.
One cannot gain victory over another who has already submitted.
The soldiers may have seized Jesus, but he had already given his will to the Father.
Pilate may have condemned him, but Jesus had already submitted to the triune plan to defeat death by death.
The disciples were never really the cause of anything.
These tokens of suffering, betrayal, failure, and death would become everlasting signs of sovereign love.
This is the heart of Communion.
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Every Lord’s Supper, we come to the trading place.
We come carrying our shame and guilt like Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol, dragging the clanking chain of his sins.
Yet at the Table, Jesus offers to break those chains.
He wants to trade us.
He’s ready to take our latest cowardly denial, drowsy inattention, outright betrayal, and embarrassing flight into self-protection.
He remains the most extravagant trader.
No four-year-old trading his leather baseball glove for a tattered comic book ever made a seemingly worse deal than Jesus.
For out of the grace hoard of his complete atonement, Jesus swaps us.
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Can you imagine Jesus at the Table?
His eyes welcome you with love.
They see all and yet beckon you to come closer.
His smile opens an ocean of compassion.
He speaks with startlingly ordinary words.
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‘Drop that sack of shame right here.
Take a hunk of my ever-renewing Bread of Life.
Slide that bitter cup of stubborn unforgiveness my way.
And pick up my cup.
Gulp down the blood that cleanses not only all you’ve ever done but all that’s ever been done to you.
Come on — trade me.
This is for you, right now.
Give me your worst.
Receive my best.
Take me — don’t wait.
Let’s make a trade.’
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It’s not only a matter of sins.
We can bring all that weighs us down and offer it up.
In Communion, Jesus nourishes us with himself, so we can receive any and all words he says into our personal situations.
We bring our anxiety and listen to him saying, ‘My peace I give to you. . . . Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.’
We bring our tumults and trials and receive his words, 'In the world you will have tribulation.
But take heart;
I have overcome the world.’
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We bring our sorrows from all the painful partings.
He speaks, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.’
We carry up our despair over the state of the world and place it into his hands.
He gives us the bread and cup with a promise:
‘Behold, I am making all things new.’
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The heart of Communion is Jesus’s taking the worst, hardest, most baffling and defeating from us.
He gives us his best — his way, truth, and life.
For the bread reveals the Son of God who gave himself entirely and utterly for us.
The cup offers the blood shed to take away every sin.
The essence of the Lord’s Supper is Jesus offering in the present moment all that his incarnate life, death, resurrection, and ascension have accomplished.
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Paul writes, ‘The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ?
The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?’
The mystery is the wondrous exchange whereby Jesus keeps on receiving us as his own and giving himself to us utterly and redemptively.
This puts all the other questions, as important as they may be, in their proper place.
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So, Beloved...
Let’s all take a moment right now in silent prayer to thank the Lord for all He did for us...
(MOMENT OF SILENCE)
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Tom, will you pray before we partake in the bread:
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The Word of God says in Luke 22:19:
19 And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
(TAKE THE BREAD)
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Adrian, will you pray before we partake in the cup:
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The Word of God says in Luke 22:20:
20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
(TAKE THE CUP)
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With that, we conclude the communion portion of our service.
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
Let’s pray...
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Heavenly Father...
If anyone hearing this message right now does not know You in a saving way...
Then please, set their hearts to the truth that is found in the Scriptures...
And soften their hearts so that they will surrender to Your Son.
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I appeal to Your Name’s sake!
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For those hearing this message who already know You...
Remind us daily of the promise of the fulfillment of the Kingdom of God...
And guide us in our efforts to share Your Good News with this lost world.
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Again, I appeal to Your Name’s sake!
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It is in Jesus’s name we pray all these things...
To God be all the glory.
Amen.
