The Subtle Growth of the Kingdom
The Son: Meeting Jesus through Luke • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Opening Comments:
Opening Comments:
Today marks sermon number 71 in our series through the Gospel of Luke that we have titled “The Son: From the Manger to the Grave.” We will take our text from Luke 13:18-21 which is found on Pg. number 820 in our church Bibles. This is God’s Holy Word, let’s read it together:
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.”
Prayer:
Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
As we gather on this first Sunday of a new year, we are filled with hope and anticipation for the days ahead. Yet we know that every step forward must be guided by Your wisdom and grace. Lord we know that we need Your Word to light our path, Your Spirit to empower us, and Your presence to sustain us through the unknowns of 2025.
Lord, today, as we reflect on the parable of the mustard seed and the yeast, we are reminded of the small beginnings and transformative power of Your Kingdom. Plant Your Word deep within our hearts, and may it grow and shape us to be more like Christ.
Use this moment to speak to us, inspire us, and guide us so that we may walk boldly into the year ahead with You as our foundation.
In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
Introduction:
Introduction:
As we return to our exposition of Luke, let’s take a moment to recall where we left off. In our last passage, we saw Jesus teaching in the synagogue, where He demonstrated the liberating mercy of God by healing a woman burdened for 18 years. Her physical condition mirrored the spiritual bondage that weighed down so many under the heavy yoke of legalism. While her miraculous healing brought glory to God, it also exposed the hypocrisy of the religious elite, who prioritized man-made rules over the compassionate work of God.
This event illustrated two key truths: the mercy of Jesus brings healing and freedom, while legalism binds and blinds. Or, as we put it, mercy is more important than minutiae.
It is with this contrast fresh in our minds that we now approach Luke 13:18-21, where Jesus is still in the same synagogue and gets right back to teaching about the kingdom of God.
He begins by asking two rhetorical questions:
What is the kingdom of God like?
To what shall I compare it?
He then sets out to answer these two questions by using parables to reveal its nature—it is a kingdom marked not by burdensome minutiae but by transformative growth and pervasive influence.
1.) The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. (v.19)
1.) The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. (v.19)
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.”
In this parable, Jesus was the gardener who planted the mustard seed.
A.) Facts about the mustard seed:
Of the commonly used seeds by the people (barley, wheat, lentils, beans) in Jesus day, the mustard would have been the smallest they were most accustomed to using.
Mustard is more like a bush than a tree but there are some reports of them being so large (up to 15 feet) a rider on horseback could find shade under its branches.
The fact that such a small seed could produce such a large result caused the mustard seed to be a commonly used proverbial saying to describe smallness.
B.) The planting and growing
Took- deliberately put the seed in hand with purpose and thought. This seed wasn’t planted by accident. God planted and nourished it.
Garden- A cultivated field, but unenclosed. It is applied to any cultivated ground or pasture, or tillage. It is also applied to woodland or mountain top. It denotes sometimes a cultivated region as opposed to the wilderness. This wasn’t a small home garden; the Mishna actually forbid the planting of mustard in a home garden.
If God were a man planting a field where would his field be? God’s garden is the world, the creation of his own hand.
The mustard seed grew so great that the birds of the air made nests in their branches.
Nested- To take up an abode. Settle permanently.
C.) The interpretation
Lukes whole point in writing was to show Theophilus how the kingdom of God grew from just a few persons into a great movement.
Jesus is standing in the middle of the synagogue surrounded by people who opposed him. Only a very small number present truly belived he was ushering in the Kingdom of God. He was teaching them that the Kingdom was destined to grow into a great and powerful Kingdom.
Jesus here is prophesying that his Kingdom (explain, the “Church” all the saved) will steadily grow so large that even the birds (who are not apart of it, the unbelieving world will find blessing from it’s influence and growth).
It will continue to grow to amazing proportion until Christ returns in glory to set up its physical manifestation on earth.
11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself.
13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.
14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses.
15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.
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.”
The Kingdom of God, despite its humble start will become a mighty force just as the Old Testament prophets had declared that it would.
God will establish his Son as its king and he will rule with a rod of iron. (Psalm 2)
1 Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, 3 “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”
4 He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. 5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”
7 I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. 8 Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession. 9 You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”
10 Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. 11 Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. 12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
During his reign the righteous will thrive and there will be peace on earth as never before.
7 In his days may the righteous flourish, and peace abound, till the moon be no more!
Isaiah predicted that Messiah would come as a suffering servant in Isaiah 53 but in Isaiah 54:3 declared he would return to rein over the earth and Israel.
3 For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities.
The prophet Michah described the Lords Earthly kingdom 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.
Micah 5:2 tells us
2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.
and v.4
4 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.
Zechariah described the Lord’s earthy kingdom by saying:
10 Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord.
11 And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people. And I will dwell in your midst, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you.
12 And the Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.”
20 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Peoples shall yet come, even the inhabitants of many cities.
21 The inhabitants of one city shall go to another, saying, ‘Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts; I myself am going.’
22 Many peoples and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord.
23 Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue shall take hold of the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’ ”
9 And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be one and his name one.
10 The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem. But Jerusalem shall remain aloft on its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses.
11 And it shall be inhabited, for there shall never again be a decree of utter destruction. Jerusalem shall dwell in security.
The kingdom of God which started in the soul of a poor carpenter from Galilee from a small insignificant despised nation was carried forward by men with no position and no prestige. There were no mighty, no noble, no famous persons among its early followers. They were only common people, some from honorable professions such as the fishing industry, and some from despised professions such as tax collecting. It grew beyond those men to a church of 120 people in the upper room to an explosive movement across the centuries until one day Christ is seated on his throne in Jerusalem to rule and rein for a thousand years before creating a new heaven and a new earth.
The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, small and insignificant. Growing slowly and unnoticed until it can no longer be denied and becomes a mighty tree big enough to provide refuge for all who seek to build there nest in its branches.
2.) The kingdom of God is like yeast (leaven) working in dough. (v.21)
2.) The kingdom of God is like yeast (leaven) working in dough. (v.21)
21 It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.”
In this parable, notice Jesus is like the woman placing the leaven (Kingdom)into meal (world).
A.) Facts about leaven
It’s is a fermented substance mixed into bread dough that works silently and quietly causing the dough swell, bubble up and expand.
It changes and transforms bread made from water and meal that is hard and dry and makes it soft, porous and moist.
It turns a dissatisfying and unnourishing flat cracker and turns it into a nourishing and satisfying loaf. It changes the quality and substance of the dough.
B.) The placing of the yeast.
Took-same word as the parable of the mustard seed. The yeast was deliberately planted into the meal.
At this time bread was generally made by women. So in this parable the woman takes yeast (leaven) and places it into “three measures of flour” (about 50lbs) “until it was all leavened”. Then, over time that leaven would transform the dough into something far better than unleavened dough (hard, flat, crackers).
C.) The interpretation
Jesus is pictured by the woman placing the leaven.
The flour represents the world
The leaven normally a picture of sin and its influence is used here to illustrate the positive influence of the kingdom (gospel) in the world.
Like leaven is mixed into the dough and is secret and out of sight as it begins its work, so is the Kingdom of God in this world.
The physical appearing of God’s kingdom hasn't happened yet so it is not always obvious who its citizens are, but just like the leaven transforms the dough, the presents of God’s kingdom in this world through the influence and testimony of its people faithfully sharing the gospel spreads throughout the entire globe transforming it little by little.
The entire purpose of the kingdom is to leaven and change the whole of a person and the whole of society.
It changes individuals by penetrating their hearts with the Gopel until there whole being is transformed.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
It changes society as the gospel permeates the world until it is all transformed.
Yeast doesn’t become part of the dough; it changes the dough.
Similarly, the gospel influences society without becoming diluted by it. God’s Kingdom changes the world not through things like politics and laws, forcing people to comply. No God’s kingdom permeates and bubbles below the surface changing one life at a time. We change society through hidden influence on those around us.
Speak of who comes to Christ that starts by one person. Speak of my own testimony and tell stories to others.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Jesus' parables of the mustard seed and the leaven reveal to us the nature of God's kingdom.
It begins humbly, often unnoticed, like a small seed or a pinch of yeast.
Yet, through the power and purpose of God, it grows into something extraordinary—an unstoppable force that transforms individuals and societies.
The mustard seed reminds us of the Kingdom's expansive growth, offering refuge and blessing to all.
The leaven illustrates its transformative influence, changing hearts and lives from within, spreading silently yet powerfully until all are changed by it.
This truth confronts each of us with a choice.
Jesus planted the mustard seed of His Kingdom through His life, death, and resurrection. By His sacrificial love, He paid the penalty for our sin, offering freedom from spiritual bondage.
The Gospel is the leaven that works within us, changing us from hardened sinners to softened and renewed children of God.
But this transformation and refuge are not automatic—they require a response.
Jesus calls us to repent and believe.
Repentance means turning away from sin, abandoning self-reliance, and recognizing our need for a Savior.
Faith means trusting in Jesus Christ as that Savior, believing that His death and resurrection are sufficient to reconcile us to God.
If you have not yet trusted in Christ, the invitation is open to you today. God’s Kingdom is still growing, and He invites you to be part of it. Come, find refuge in its branches, and allow the Gospel to transform your heart and life.
For those of us who have already embraced the Gospel, the parables challenge us to live as agents of the Kingdom of God.
Just as the mustard tree provides shelter and the leaven transforms the dough, we are called to reflect God's mercy, share the Gospel, and influence the world for Christ.
Let us live boldly, trusting that God will complete the work He has begun until His Kingdom is fully realized when Christ returns in glory.
Invitation
Invitation
Today, I urge you: don’t delay. Turn to Jesus. Repent, believe, and be transformed. Join the movement of His Kingdom, and let the light of the Gospel shine through your life for His glory.