Insignificantly Valuable

Knowing, Following, Sharing

I imagine Matthew 13 kind of like a movie scene that keeps flashing to and from one scene to another scene.

Jesus starts the chapter in a boat because the crowd following Him has grown too large for Him to speak to them from the shore.

From the boat, Jesus starts telling them stories about things most everyone in the crowd would have known about, but He doesn’t really explain what any of them mean.

Then the scene shift a couple of times to Jesus in a room with His closest followers, His disciples.

There He walks through the parables, explaining to them how to understand them.

When you read it this way, Jesus possibly shares all of the these parables at the same time, one after the other, starting nearly every one with “The kingdom of heaven is like...”

Jesus used these stories to describe what is looks like to follow Him, to live under His rule and reign in this life.

We have looked at the 4 responses people have to Jesus’s Kingdom message.

And He described how His kingdom grows in a word that is in opposition to it. A world groaning to be restored and made right.

Today we are going to look at 2 parables that shows us the surprising nature and value of Jesus’ Kingdom and how we should respond.

Matthew 13:31–33 CSB

31 He presented another parable to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32 It’s the smallest of all the seeds, but when grown, it’s taller than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the sky come and nest in its branches.” 33 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and mixed into fifty pounds of flour until all of it was leavened.”

Seemingly INSIGNIFICANT, but Remarkably POWERFUL

I have a mustard seed here (Show mustard seed). I can see why Jesus would choose this as an example of something seemingly insignificant.

Now the mustard plant Jesus refers to in this parable isn’t likely where these mustard seeds came from, though the size of the seed would be similar.

In Palestine and the surrounding region, mustard plants were large bushes, that grew to be 10 or 12 feet tall and were strong enough for birds to rest and build their nests in their branches.

This small, insignificant seed that seems to possess no indication of growing into anything substantial or important, Jesus points out, grows into the largest plant in the garden.

A plant that will provide shelter for bird to find a place to make their home.

This idea of bird nesting in branches was a reference back to Ezekiel 17:23, a prophesy about God’s kingdom being a mighty cedar tree where birds will go to for shelter and rest.

Coupled with that mustard seed, Jesus compares the influence of the Kingdom of Heaven (His rule and His people on earth) to a measure of leaven added to 50 pounds of flour.

For 50 pounds of flour (which would make 50 loaves of bread) you would need 2 1/3rd cups of yeast. (show comparison).

What seems like an insignificant amount of yeast would be powerful enough to spread throughout a huge amount of flour.

Imagine Jesus speaking these parables to a large group of mostly working class Jewish people who were under the rule of a ruthless and Godless Roman empire.

Jesus and His 12 disciples looked even more insignificant than a mustard seed planted in a garden bed or a tiny amount of yeast in a big batch of dough.

And yet, 2000 year later, that mighty Roman Empire has been dead for 1500 years, along with all those that followed it.

What seemed to be to powerful to fail, was overthrown and is no more.

But what seemed to be entirely insignificant has grown and influenced almost every corner of the world.

That’s surprisingly significant and profoundly powerful.

The message of Jesus and His indwelling presence in the hearts of those who trust in Him has the power to change things.

1) To change the WORLD.

Jesus’s 12 disciples on the edge of the sea turned into more that 3000 by the end of Acts chapter 2

Over the time frame covered by the book of Acts and to the end of the 1st century AD that number is thought to have swelled to over 25,000 Christians scattered throughout the Romans world.

22,000 new believers in under 100 years, all during a time of intense persecution from the Roman government and Jewish authorities.

By 310 AD, 3 years before Constantine made Christianity legal in the Romans Empire, there were estimates of 2.5 to 20 million Christians.

It had moved from a small, insignificant group to upwards of 10% of the world’s population.

They didn’t have buildings and they didn’t meet in large groups.

The were forced to hide much of the time or risk persecution by the government.

And yet the church grew rapidly.

It often feels overwhelming to consider all the nations and people across the world who do not know Jesus.

The reality is, even though the Church seems to be insignificant in comparison to the size of our world, the power of the Gospel changes nations and continues to grow and influence our world in profound and powerful ways.

Through devoted prayer, sacrificial giving, and courageous going on mission, the message of Jesus and the influence of His Kingdom will continue to spread around the world.

But there is a reality much closer to home...

2) To change our COMMUNITY.

I shared at the beginning of the year that there are 24000 people that live in Ohio county and of those 24000, only about 15 percent attend a church on a regular basis.

There are students in our schools, people we work with, families our kids play sports with, and even our own family members that have not given their lives to Jesus.

There are couples struggling in marriage, people around us overwhelmed with addiction, and so many people chasing happiness in the empty pursuits of the world.

What would it look like if we, a seemingly insignificant group of believers, making up less that 1% of our county, began to pray for those around us?

What if we started seeing the people God has brought into our lives as people He loves and people He has called us to share His message with?

What we did last week is awesome, but what we will do Monday morning and throughout next week is even more impactful if we understand that we are called to bring the Kingdom of Heaven into our world.

Each and everyone of us are a part of this Kingdom, and are called, equipped, and empowered by God to be apart of growing His Kingdom right here in our world.

3) To change US.

“In his wisdom, God has crafted a life for us that does not careen from huge, consequential moment to huge, consequential moment. In fact, if you examine your life, you will see that you have actually had few of those moments. You can probably name only two or three life-changing situations you have lived through. We are all the same; the character and quality of our life is forged in little moments.” — Paul David Tripp

Life is not made up of large, important events.

Rather it is made up of small, everyday moments, events, opportunities, actions, and decisions.

Each one of these decide things about our lives with every brick that is laid.

These Parables speak to the significance of small things in our lives.

Habits and disciplines we build in our lives influence the growth of God’s Kingdom in us.

Decision we make and time and energy we put in to things impacts how we grow in our walk with Jesus.

Going to church doesn’t save you, but it does put you under God’s Word and around Christians who will encourage you and hold you accountable.

Reading your bible will not guarantee spiritual wisdom and insight, but doing it will saturate your heart and mind in God’s wisdom and truth.

Choosing the righteous/Godly path over the easy path doesn’t mean thing will go well for you, but it does mean you are placing yourself where God can use you and shape you.

The Kingdom grows in us like a mustard seed grows in a garden.

Something that seems so insignificant can make an enormous impact.

Matthew 13:44–46 CSB

44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure, buried in a field, that a man found and reburied. Then in his joy he goes and sells everything he has and buys that field. 45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. 46 When he found one priceless pearl, he went and sold everything he had and bought it.

It is almost as if this next set of parables are like the invitation at the end of a sermon.

Jesus has compared His mission and message to a variety of relatable things in the world.

Showing the ways people will respond to Him and the way the Kingdom of God will grow and influence the world.

“So, what are you going to do about it?”

Is it worth? Are you willing to follow Him?

Generally UNIMPRESSIVE, but Incomparably VALUABLE

We have to see the value in something before we decide how much we are willing to give for it.

Jesus again tells two stories, one about a man finding a treasure buried in a field, and another about a merchant searching for pearls, who finds one that is more valuable than all the rest.

To those who owned the field, it must have not seemed all that impressive.

And to those who had the pearl, it must have not seemed as important.

But to those in the parables, the value of what they had found was incalculable.

To them it was worth...

1) Worth SELLING EVERYTHING for.

Both men in the parables immediately, without hesitation, go and sell everything they had in order to buy the treasure they had found that made everything they owned worthless in comparison.

How do you determine how much something is worth to you?

That question makes sense when we think of purchasing physical stuff in our lives.

If you go to the store and buy a pair of shoes, the value of those shoes is reflected in the amount of money you pay for it.

But what we value most in life is also shown in how much time we invest in things.

How much stress and pressure we place on ourselves to attain certain things or provide certain things for others.

Or in what we are willing to sacrifice in order to get what we have deemed most valuable.

We all fall into the trap of believing possessions, people, or prosperity are somehow the treasures that are going to ultimately satisfy the desires of our hearts.

We believe that a certain amount of money would be the key to making our lives happy, giving ourselves over to work or being consumed by the worry of having enough.

We give ourselves over in relationship, buying into the lie that a relationship is like a treasure we find in a field, and we give ourselves over to them, in a sense “selling everything we have” to satisfy our desire for love.

We teach these same values to our kids, investing their time and our money in sports and activities that keep us constantly busy, all for the promise that our kids might be somethings special some day down the road.

But what Jesus is communicating in these parables is that living for Him and embracing His rule and reign in your life is more valuable than ANYTHING we could ever have or experience.

Philippians 3:8–9 CSB

8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.

Paul’s message is clear, everything this world has to offer him is nothing in comparison to knowing Jesus as Lord.

In fact, Paul says that everything he has given up in his life to follow Jesus is worth the same as dung in comparison to knowing Jesus.

There is a way to live in this world, to work hard, pursue relationships, enjoy all the good this world has to offer, under the rule and reign of Jesus.

Saving faith is the confidence that if you sell all you have, and forsake all sinful pleasures, the hidden treasure of holy joy will satisfy your deepest desires. Saving faith is the heartfelt conviction not only that Christ is reliable, but also that He is desirable. It is the confidence that He will come through with His promises and that what He promises is more to be desired than all the world. — John Piper

2) Worth PURSUING without RESERVATION.

Both these men were searching for something.

Maybe the man in the field didn’t know what He was looking for, but when he found it, he knew right away that it was more valuable than anything he had ever owned, his search was over.

The merchant was looking for pearls, in search of the best, most precious pearls he could find. So when he found the one that was more precious than any he had ever seen, he knew his searching days were over.

There is a weight and a burden we carry in the pursuit of joy and satisfaction in this life.

What Jesus is telling us in these parables is that your searching and your pursuing will only be satisfied when your pursuit leads you to Him.

Jesus says the man in the field went and sold all he had “IN HIS JOY”. He had found the thing that would quench his thirst, still his hunger pains, and satisfy his the longings of his soul.

Just a few chapters earlier, Jesus made a promise that these parables put into picture.

Matthew 11:28–30 CSB

28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

He is worthy of the pursuit brothers and sisters.

He is worth giving up everything else for.

It might seem insignificant, unimportant, maybe even crazy, but He is worth the pursuit.

The simple, the seemingly mundane steps of obedience and faithfulness are worth it.

3) Worth SHARING at WHATEVER COST.

Just a quick, final point.

We aren’t told what either of the characters in the parables do with the treasures they are found, but I think if we were to ask Jesus what they should have done, He would answer quickly, “share what you have found with all who would hear.”

Why would we hold on to this life changing message if it has transformed us so radically?

The people must have thought these two guys were crazy for selling everything they have for such seemingly unimpressive things.

My dad is a big fan of the Antique Roadshow, and I have watched several episodes with him.

It is crazy sometimes to see how much certain things appraise for that I would have thought were worthless junk.

But the ARS has experts in basically every field, that will walk through every detail of and item and will show you why something that seems like it is worthless is actually worth a great deal of money.

That is what our responsibility is as believers in Jesus.

To know why what we have received in Christ is the most valuable thing in this world.

We aren’t responsible for someone else believing, but we have the blessing and responsibility to share with them why He is so worthy.