Kingdom Work

Matthew 13:31-33

If you have your copy of God’s Word and I hope you do, turn with me to Matthew 13:31-33. If you don’t have a Bible and would like one, we would love for you to walk out of here with one so please come see me after service and I’ll make sure you get one.

Introduction

My dad is a master gardener. Anything that man puts in dirt, grows. In the past couple of years, he has scaled the size of his plot back so that it is easier for him to manage, but at one point he had a recreational garden that was over an acre of land. One spring, he grew 100 tomato plants along with several other vegetables. that year he was in way over his head and he knew it. Even last month, at my sister’s wedding, every flower that was in the room was either grown by my sister, or my dad. Not only is my dad a highly skilled gardener, but he’s also a highly passionate gardener. He absolutely loves it. And he spends time in his garden or his greenhouse virtually everyday. He’ll send me pictures of the day’s harvest like I send him pictures of my two children. If I ever just want to chat with my dad, I’ll just call him and ask him how his garden’s looking and I know that he will have plenty to share about what has happened and even more about what he’s planning for next planting season.

BUT as much as my dad knows about gardening, and as much time as he invests in ensuring he has a healthy garden, he would be willing to admit to you that he has never grown a single seed. You see, more than my dad loves gardening, he loves Jesus. And he trusts that whenever he finishes the task of planting that seed in the ground, all that’s left to do is water the ground around it and wait for the harvest as God handles the growth.

Today we are going to look at two parables that emphasize the reality that while we might be the ones responsible for planting the seeds of the gospel, it is God that handles the growth of those seeds. So read with me beginning in Matthew 13:31–33

“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. 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.” 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.””

PRAY

Context

Now before we dive into what this text teaches us, I want to paint the picture of what’s happening here and why Jesus chooses some of the language that He does in this text.

At the beginning of chapter 13 we get the setting of this passage. Jesus is at the sea of Galilee, sitting in a boat pushed out from the shore, teaching what the Bible refers to as “great crowds.” Based on the content of what he’s saying, great is referring to the size of the crowd, not the quality. Jesus does some CALLING OUT in some of these parables.

So, Jesus is teaching a bunch of people by the sea and we land on our text today and he uses some imagery and literary devices that really add to the context of this passage.

First, Jesus uses hyperbole in a few different places. He refers to the mustard seed as “the smallest of seeds.” The mustard seed is not actually the smallest of seeds, but Jesus uses this wording to exaggerate the smallness of the seed. He then refers to the fully grown mustard plant as “larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree.” Now again, the fully grown mustard plant is not larger than all the garden plants. Jesus is exaggerating the size of the mustard plant that He is referring to. Some non-Christian scholars use these “statements” as reasons to not believe the words of Jesus as these are incorrect statements. Jesus using these hyperbolic statements doesn’t make him wrong, it just makes Him creative.

In the parable of the leaven some versions say “a little bit of leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour.” So, picture whatever you feel like a little leaven is—Jesus isn’t specific so we don’t have to be either—but He does specify three measures of flour. Which is estimated to be about 180 pounds of flour. “One scholar notes that you’d need a 100-quart Hobart mixer with a dough hook as big as your leg to knead it.” This amount of flour could make enough bread to feed 100 people.

All of this imagery and hyperbole is used to drive home the same point, The greatest works of the Kingdom have small beginnings.

This leads me to my first point;

Kingdom Work Starts Small

We could spend all of our time today digging through the Bible and discovering over and over again how God frequently began great works and incredible movements through people and circumstances that seemed small or unlikely.

Let’s take a look at the life of Jesus.

Let’s remember that this is the Almighty King of the Universe. Like Sovereign over all. All-powerful. All-knowing. Reigning from before time began and will reign for all of the rest of eternity. There has never been a moment that existed outside of the authority and the wisdom of Jesus. Yet, how does he choose to come to Earth to save His people from their sin?

As a baby. From a no name family. In a no name place. At a time when there was a government decree to kill all the baby boys. Not only that, but he wasn’t even born in a home or a hospital, but a stable and the first place that God in flesh ever laid His head was not that of a prepared cradle, but the very trough that the animals surrounding Him ate out of, maybe even earlier that day.

Fast forward thirty years, As He finally begins His public ministry, he doesn’t go down to the local synagogue and recruit the varsity team of religious scholars. He doesn’t knock on the doors of the richest families in the area asking if they wanted to join in. He doesn’t even go and try to find the reputable and well-known people in the area. He calls a dozen unknown, uneducated, unqualified, and a few of them even unliked young people to follow Him and begin what you and I know now as Christianity and the modern church. You want to talk about the smallest of seeds or a little bit of leaven, this is it.

One verse that I believe pairs very well with these parables is Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Let me just be clear, every work that God begins is a good work. He is not in the business of doing bad work and never has He ever done wrong work. Now me? I can do some bad work. and Me? I can give you a long list of wrong work that I have gotten into. However, when I am doing the work that He has called me to, and that He began, it’s never bad and it’s never wrong. William Barclay says it this way, “If a thing is right, God is behind it and in the end it will make its mark.” It might be small work, but if it’s Kingdom Work, it’s good work.

This is applicable for you and me in a couple different ways. The first being how this applies to us personally. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I got saved, I didn’t have it all figured out. I was not aware of what all was expected of me as a Christian. To be frank with you, I was a child. I didn’t know much of anything at that point in my life. all that I did know was that the Spirit of God had gripped my heart and made me acutely aware of how my sin broke the heart of God, created distance between Him and me, and that Jesus died on the cross for those sins and was offering me an eternal life of freedom from that separation from God. Now, I am not saying that someone getting saved is a small kingdom work. Luke 15:7 “Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” All of Heaven rejoices over one saved soul. each saved soul. That is the largest kingdom work there is. But what I am saying is that when I got saved, I wasn’t instantly glorified. I wasn’t even ready to preach the Word of God in front of the mirror, much less a congregation. It was at that moment that the seeds of the gospel that had been planted in my life by faithful family members and friends began to grow roots and sprout out of the ground. The leaven of the Word of God that is living and active began to interact with the flour that was my life and the chemical reaction of “proofing” began as the person that I was began to change from the inside out.

Maybe you can relate to this.

If you’re a follower of Jesus you too can remember the mustard seed moment in your life where the truth of the gospel became realized in your heart and you surrendered to living for Jesus. I hope that you will take time today and this week praising God for the work that He began in your life then and the growth that you have been able to see since then.

If you aren’t a follower of Jesus, yet, my prayer all week has been that you would have that mustard seed moment right here today. God has been orchestrating your being here today since before time began and He is aware of the questions that you have, the fears of what life will look like once you begin following Him, and the reservations that you have for choosing not to. Hear me say this, surrendering to following Jesus today does not mean that you should be able to hold your own in a theological debate. It does not mean that you have to have your life cleaned up enough for Him to actually accept you. Surrendering to Jesus today is recognizing that Jesus is the Savior and Lord of your life, receiving the forgiveness that He offers for the sins that you have done to separate yourself from Him, and committing to following Him for the rest of your life. It does not mean that life will be pain free or even easier, but I’ve staked my whole life on this promise because of how convinced I am that God is true to His Word. Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Receive the salvation that Christ is offering today and I promise it will be the best decision you ever make.

Not only is the truth that Kingdom Work starts small applicable for us personally, but it is also applicable to us missionally. Again, lets think of the grass roots of the Church. Jesus told the eleven disciples after his resurrection to Matthew 28:18–20 “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”” And then just a little later, maybe even in the same conversation that he tells this group of young men Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.””

Eleven young men. Not hundreds. Not thousands. Not tens of thousands. Not hundreds of thousands. Not millions. The church began when Jesus told eleven men to be bold with their faith, live in the power of the Holy Spirit, and watch how God changes the world through their faithfulness to carry the gospel forward. And faithful they were. And as they shared the passed the torch to other new believers. And they passed the torch to other believers and over thousands of years, this gospel truth of old that shall not kneel and shall not faint has made its way to you and to me.

And though we might not have the global reach of someone like Billy Graham, Tim Tebow, Louie Giglio, or Joby Martin, we’ve been called to be just as faithful in the kingdom work that God has called us to. No matter how small it might seem! While we might never reach millions, we can reach one. And that one is who God is calling us to bring the gospel towards so that they too might experience the mustard seed moment of going from death to life through the saving power of the message of Christ.

God will not ask you to be faithful with much until you have been faithful with a little (see Luke 16:10). As we go about the business of growing the Kingdom of God, let’s remember that Kingdom work starts small.

Kingdom Work Grows Gradually

Seeds don’t grow into trees instantly. Leaven doesn’t proof in a moment. Both of these things grow slowly. So slowly, that if you were to just stand around and watch them, you would hardly notice their growth. Though their growth is gradual, it is purposeful and necessary for the seed to become a fruit bearing plant, and for the dough to become loaf worthy bread.

Speaking of loaf worthy bread, my wife is an incredible sourdough baker. Like top tier. She’s really good. She has a starter that’s literally just a fungus that we keep in our fridge so that she can occasionally use it make some bread. Which sounds really gross, but trust me, it’s worth it. When that bread comes out of the oven and we cut that thing open, spread some butter on it with some honey and flaky salt on top, I feel like I can hear the angels singing. Besides her chocolate chip cookies—which are worthy of a sermon analogy at some point—Cailee’s sourdough bread is my favorite thing that she makes. But she can’t just wake up and whip it together. She has to plan 2 entire days around tending to the dough for this bread. The reason being is that the proofing process takes time. She’s got to “feed” the starter and wait for it to get to just the right peak in it’s fermentation before she adds it to the flour, salt, and honey to make the dough. Then she has to spend like four hours or something folding the dough every thirty minutes to make sure the dough has enough tension. Then she has to wait I can’t even tell you how long she waits for the dough to rise. Then she has to form the dough into loaves. Then the loaves have to rise for what feels like an eternity before they are ready to bake. And so I wait, and dream, and occasionally salivate for like 36 hours or something while this dough rises and becomes “leavened.”

This is what Jesus says Kingdom work is like. What starts as a small bit of leaven grows gradually out of necessity and purpose. Referencing our verse in Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” this gradual growth would be the phrase, “will bring it to.” For impatient people like me, this can feel like a miserable phrase from time to time.

The reality of our culture is that we live in a “I want it all now” society. We want all the movies, now. We want all of our groceries delivered to our doorstep, now. We want all the news—for some reason, now. We want the biggest salary, now. We want the fastest shipping, the fastest wifi, the fastest weight loss program, now. As an entire society, we have lost touch with the idea of patience and gradual growth and it shows. And while I also indulge in the fast pace, brevity stricken pleasures of modern society, I can’t help but think that we might could all benefit from some distance between that which we want and the ability to actually obtain it.

This is a biblical concept as well. Patience is a part of the fruit of the Spirit. I say again this is why when we are saved, we are not instantly glorified. The churchy word for the gradual growth of the Christian is sanctification. We would define this word as, “the process of becoming like Jesus.” So, for the person in the room that is not where you want to be in their walk with Christ. Listen to me, you’re right! You are not where you should be, but the better news is that in Christ you aren’t who you used to be and the hope that you have says that you aren’t who you will be one day. Terry Johnson says it this way, “God’s kingdom is irrepressible. It is a long process. But it will come to pass. In Christ we are ‘more than conquerors’ (Rom. 8:37). We are to be ‘steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our toil is not in vain in the Lord’ (1 Cor. 15:57). We will grow and God will have dominion over us. He will master us slowly but surely. Likewise will He build His church.” Friends, keep persevering. Continue to walk in what the Lord is calling you to do and you will continue to grow.

Missionally, this is an extremely motivating idea. Think about the situation that we are in as Valley Church. In just a couple of weeks, we are going to be celebrating one year since we launched as a church. What started as a few people meeting downstairs has turned into around 70 people gathering each week for worship. Now one year is not much time, and we praise God for how He has moved in our church and in our community in the past year. However, when you place that one year on the timeline of all of church history, we get a better picture of how the Lord has been gradually growing His church over thousands of years. It reminds me of Acts 16:5 “So the churches were strengthened in the faith, and they increased in numbers daily.”

God is moving. I firmly believe that the work that he has begun here at Valley has only just begun and that we cannot even imagine how He will use our church to reach people right here in our community from now until He returns or calls us home! But as we take part in this work personally and missionally, let’s remember that The work that we are able to see God accomplish in our lives and in our church is just a glimpse of how He has been gradually growing the Kingdom since the very beginning of time.

Kingdom Work Changes Everything

It is impossible for birds to make nests in the branches of a mustard seed, because it’s a seed, it doesn’t have branches. If you bake unleavened bread, you just get a really gross pancake. But when you allow the seed and leaven to experience the growth that God provides, what you are left with is something that is fundamentally different, far more useful, and much more enjoyable than it was before it grew. This would be referring to the last phrase in Philippians 1:6 “And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

Friends, the gospel changes everything. When we encounter the gospel of Jesus Christ and we receive the salvation that He offers, everything in our lives change. The very function of each breath that we take serves a different purpose than it once did. This is because from the moment that we are justified in Christ, we are no longer the Lord of our own lives. We transfer the center of authority of our very being away from ourselves and towards Christ. And the goal of the Christian life is that the further we get that mustard seed moment of salvation the less we look like the person that we once were and the more we look like Jesus. Christians, is this true of you? If I’m honest with you, I have been the person and I have met too many people in my life that will tell you that Jesus is Lord of their life, but when you look at their life, it still seems like they are sitting in the driver seat. Now again, I want to say that sanctification is a process and that we are constantly rooting sin out of our life. But there are plenty of times in which we say we are “struggling” with sin. When in reality, we aren’t struggling at all. We are actually really good at sinning. And far too often we are far more interested in the benefits of following Jesus than we are in actually becoming like Jesus. LET THIS NOT BE SO! Jesus did not die on a cross so that he might be Lord over most of your life. He’s either Lord over all of your life, or none of it. When we receive Christ as Savior and Lord, over time, everything changes.

Missionally, how convinced are you that kingdom work changes everything? When Jesus says in John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Do you believe Him? If so, prove it. The hope that we have as believers is that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the only message that leads to eternal life. Who in your circle of influence where you live, learn, work, and play needs to hear the hope of the gospel? Here at Valley, we are huge proponents for relational evangelism. What I mean by this is that those that we most frequently share the gospel with should be those that we have built relationships and friendships with. While it might be an uncomfortable jump in conversation than what your used to, I want to challenge you to share with someone in your life that needs to hear the hope of Christ how He has changed you. Inviting those that we love to follow Jesus is THE most loving thing that we can do. Yes, it will probably be awkward for a minute. Yes, you will have a lump in your throat while you do it. However, you could be the person that God uses in their life to bring them to that mustard seed moment of Jesus Christ becoming Lord and Savior of their life.

Main Idea

The work of the Kingdom of God might start small, but over time—as it grows gradually—it changes everything!

Response

Earlier in this message I shared the gospel with you. The reality that Jesus Christ came to earth, lived a perfect life, died on the cross as the payment for our sin, rose from the grave three days later, and offers us the free gift of eternal life by grace and through faith. If today is the day of your mustard seed moment and you would like to receive that salvation, please come and see me in the back during this song and I would love to celebrate with you and pray with you as you begin your new life in Christ.

God is calling all of us to participate in kingdom work in one way or another. If you want to talk about how God might be calling you to join in on the work that He is doing to grow the Kingdom, please come and talk to me.

And as we sing this song of response, maybe just need to take a moment and pray for B.O.B. that’s a burden for the lost, opportunities to share the gospel, and boldness to actually do it. Friends, Kingdom work changes everything. Let’s respond in a way that reflects our belief in that.