DIMINUTIVE DYNAMITE

DIMINUTIVE DYNAMITE Matthew 13:31-33 January 21,  2001 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory One of the most common elements on earth is sand. Multiple billions of trillions of tiny pieces of alloy, each piece of which is only a thousandth of an inch across, are strewn around our earth. Sand-you see it at the beach, the desert and the playground; you wipe it off your feet after a day at the beach; you mix it with water and rock and make it into concrete. Not much value, really. That's what you would have said 50 years ago. But today, sand is being mined, melted and re-made into quartz silicon wafers about 1/300th the thickness of a human hair, and these wafers are now powering computers throughout the globe. Who knows what else they will be powering in the days to come. Sand! Big things sometimes come in small packages. I read recently about a tiny rubber o-ring about three-tenths of an inch wide. To look at a tiny o-ring that small would not impress anyone. And yet 15 years ago two of those rings were placed in the aft field joint of the Solid Rocket Booster to stop gases from escaping. Whether it was the unusually cold weather, a contaminate introduced into the zinc putty used on them, any number of potential compression problems, or human error during manufacturing, these two miniature o-rings failed to do what they were designed to do, and the Orbiter Challenger Space Shuttle was decimated by explosion before the watching world, 73 seconds into her flight, claiming the lives of all seven crew members. It's the little things that are often so important. Tiny viruses the size of a pin head, heart valves no larger than a man's thumbnail, single votes in an election, a bag of explosives not bigger than a backpack, an ill-chosen word from a loved one - little things have tremendous power. Matthew 13 records the story Jesus told about the smallest thing His audience could identify with-a mustard seed. The Parables He told them another parable: 'The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.'" Matthew 13:31-32 He has already told parables about seeds and weeds, soils and toil, disturbing judgment scenes and encouraging hundred fold harvests. These themes had been grandiose and quite interesting to his listeners-at least those who had ears to hear-but don't you think maybe they were anxious to hear a word or two about their common lives? Angels gathering up people like sheaves and delivering them to heaven and hell was electrifying storytelling, but "What about me?" they were thinking. "I'm not a landowner, I don't farm any acreage. I don't influence a lot of people for the Lord. I'm not that talented. In fact, I usually wonder if I'm any good to God at all! This whole faith thing-I mean, sure, we're God's people, but the Romans have us under their thumb, the priests are corrupt, I haven't seen a miracle in all my life, their hasn't been a prophet since Malachi, and life pretty much just goes on. Can you make any sense out of this for me? Will I ever do anything significant for the kingdom?" May I confess to you some of my deepest and most personal frustration? I don't like it when the church of Jesus Christ seems weak and anemic. It bothers me when we go through seasons of numerical non-growth and even go backward. When people fuss over things and leave one church and go to another for petty reasons. When the church feels stagnant and unproductive in the work of reaching the lost. The hardest times for me to pray is when instead of a cell group multiplying, it folds. I find it very difficult sometimes to stay "up and positive" during such seasons. This parable is for me-and for others here this morning who sometimes feel that way as well. So, I want to encourage you to take heart as the Lord has caused me to take heart this week. He wants to remind us that He is in charge; He loves His church and He is reaching people through His church; and the seemingly feeble, unrewarded efforts each of you puts forth He is using. The mustard seed Jesus spoke of is not the kind of mustard seed we might find in the WalMart Garden Center this Spring. The mustard seed He illustrated with was about the smallest thing you could seed with the naked eye. Picture maybe a single granule of table salt, and divide it into thirds. After telling the people about broadcasting wheat seed all over the countryside, here is an almost humorous picture of a farmer carefully carrying this microcosmic seed out to the field, digging a half-inch-deep hole and carefully planting it. The point is, though, that the plant that comes from this tiny seed is the biggest garden plant of all. In fact, when fully grown, it's like a little tree, so large that birds even come to rest in its branches. Big things come in small packages. Now His point is this-the kingdom of heaven is like that! It looks hopelessly small and insignificant early on, but it eventually grows and becomes remarkably impressive. It was the prophet Zechariah who spoke about the project of rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem in the days following the exile. It looked like a hopeless job. They had worked so hard and so long and only the foundation was done. It was in the midst of his doubts and fears that the Lord spoke through him these often-quoted words: "'Not by might nor by power, but by my spirit,' says the Lord." The Lord asks His prophet, "Who despises the day of small things?" and it is a rebuke! Don't ever think that God's kingdom is not "working" because it doesn't look like it is. When a scrawny, tiny seed goes into the ground, it doesn't look very promising. So it is with my kingdom, Jesus says. If he were walking Old Collinsville Road in the 20th century instead of Palestine Blvd. in the 1st century, he might have told his parable like this: There was a man who owned a little café in Corbin, KY. And People faithfully came to his little café because they loved his fried chicken. And the people would say to him, "Harlan, this fried chicken of yours is so good, you ought to market it." And within twenty years people on every continent in the world were agreeing that Colonel Sanders' chicken was finger-lickin' good. Or, maybe he would use another story. There were two brothers who thought they could fly. So they tried to build an airplane, but it only sputtered a few feet in the air. They kept working at their dream in Kitty Hawk, N.C., and now.well, just look in the sky and see for yourself-that hunk of metal just took off from a concrete landing strip outside of Mascoutah! But I wonder if he might even tell it like this. There were about a hundred and fifty people who came together regularly in my name in the St. Louis metro-east area. And that motley group actually thought they could help extend the kingdom of God by saturating the area with the good news. In fact, they thought God told them they would establish 1,000 cell groups in the neighborhoods of the metro-east. But Jesus did tell another parable and the grammar of Matthew 13 suggests that this one and the story about the mustard seed belong together. (Verse 33) "He told them still another parable: 'The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.'" This little story has to do, not with agriculture this time, but with a pinch of leaven used by a homemaker. Within a short period of time, the yeast had permeated the entire batch of dough. And He said, "The kingdom of heaven is like that." It secretly, quietly, unobtrusively infiltrates the culture into which it is introduced and affects it powerfully. But if you were to look at the small amount of powdery substance in the woman's hand you would never believe it could make a large batch of dough rise and become bread! The kingdom of heaven is a contagion. It influences from one person to another, like a strong virus being passed along. Everyone it contacts is affected positively by it, and some people actually become carriers! Before you know it, the entire country, or county or city or neighborhood or family is changed by it. Now, remember, the kingdom of heaven is anywhere people love and obey the Lord. When these infectious carriers get into your neighborhood, you will be affected. Oh, you may act like an antibody and repel their influence, but rest assured, what God is doing in their lives is going to get to your family and friends. Soon, entire cultures are permeated with its life-enhancing qualities. This is the very reason Jesus elsewhere spoke of His people as salt-you never notice the flavoring influence of salt by looking at it, but sooner or later, your whole community tastes better. The Punch As the message of Christ changes a person from within (and it does), that person is changed slowly sometimes, even imperceptibly, but changed nevertheless. His family is positively influenced by his change toward the nature of Christ-true conversion and sanctification never produces negative long-term effects. The miracle of the leaven-like influence begins to not only affect the relationships and atmosphere of their home, but even convince others to join the kingdom. Soon the influence is seen by neighbors, relatives, co-workers, and the kingdom person begins to personally testify about what the Lord has done for him. The cell group he is a part of keeps encouraging and stimulating these changes, helping him be a better and better influence to those in his environ. It's not long before others are affected enough that they, too, become kingdom people, and the cycle starts up in a whole new family, neighborhood and workplace. Now while this kingdom encroachment is going on there is no press release about it. The city council does not concern itself with this most personal issue in individuals' lives. Oh, they may get the word that another church has started and is needing to build a facility, but by and large there is no strong impact felt. But one day, the realization comes that most of the teachers, counselors, and social workers are Christians. The mayor is a believer, as is her husband and many of his associates. Half the police force have given their lives to Christ and corruption has ground to a halt in local government. Kids have a whole new attitude about school, see the value of education and discipline. Families are changing. Jesus bumper stickers are showing up on every other car on the road. People are friendlier. Dishonorable businesses are closing down for lack of customers. Suddenly there are two Christian bookstores, the church buildings are full on Sunday mornings, gangs are sharing Christ instead of shooting one another. Don't believe it? Take it up with Jesus. He's the one who told the story about the leaven. He's the one who says the kingdom will grow quietly into something you would never have guessed possible! You convince a Roman prison guard and it's not long before his whole family is baptized. Convince an Andrew and he'll soon bring his brother Simon. Lead an adulterous woman to the kingdom and watch a whole Samaritan village get influenced for the kingdom within a day! The kingdom of heaven is about growth and influence. So it has been for two thousand years. If you don't think the kingdom is infectious, I would challenge you to watch the CNN reruns of the Senate hearings concerning Senator Ashcroft. It is not a political thing at all to observe how worried some people are that a man with Christian moral convictions would actually be in the presidential cabinet! There is such powerful irony here. The very stuff that has made this country great-godly morality-is the greatest fear of all! A fair reading of world history in general and US history specifically will demonstrate that the church of Jesus Christ was right in the middle of everything good that has ever taken place in the advancement of education, science, health and government. When societies have crumbled and deteriorated have been precisely when they have ceased listening to the influence of the church. Morley Safer in a segment he did on 60 minutes about a month ago went on the attack against Catholic hospitals, saying the largest health care institutions in the United States are controlled by the church, and that it's not right because when people get health care they get religious doctrine as part of the deal! The implication was clear: these institutions ought to provide good quality health care without the religion! What a joke! If you take out the religious faith, the whole powerful motivation to provide loving compassionate health care disappears! You're left with nothing but a profit motive! Charles Colson, in his prophetic and powerful little book, Against the Night, says the church serves as ".outposts of truth, decency, and civilization in the darkening culture around us. For even though the church itself is shot through with an individualism that cripples its witness, even thought he church today is made up of sinners like you and me, it is the one institution in society that still has the capability to challenge culture by bearing witness to God's transcendent standards of absolute justice and righteousness." But Christianity is always, at first, an offense to the world. We are countercultural, and our message is not easily received. The best communication of the kingdom message is changed lives-that's how the leaven-like penetration happens; that's how the mustard seed-like growth takes place. The Point The point of the parable is simple: the kingdom of heaven works its way into the culture with its positive influence and enhances the culture, even attracting a few in the culture to not only benefit by that influence, but to become part of it. The kingdom of heaven is at work even when it seems small and insignificant to us. There is a secret, quiet, unobtrusive influence occurring all the while the church is faithful to the Lordship of Jesus. It is not explosive (sudden, destructive)-this kind of influence is seldom a solid, lasting thing. But the kingdom is a steady, solid, lasting influence. So, take hope when it seems to have slowed down or stopped. It hasn't. Never flag in zeal, said Paul, but keep on serving Him faithfully. The kingdom is at work in our world with great power through the Holy Spirit's strength. I have tried to be an influence in people's lives and received nothing in return but resistance or even ridicule. Then, a couple years later, I will see the same person, only to discover he has given his life to the Lord. The kingdom is always at work using people. People-to-people contact is how this Christian influence spreads. Reconciled, we become reconcilers. Please know this and remember it-YOU are the one God is using to spread His kingdom. That's right, you are the mustard seed and you are the leaven! And your job is not to do your best to be a growing seed or a leavening influence. Your sole job is to follow Jesus closely and let Him grow you into His likeness. All this influence stuff will happen automatically.. I want to close with one last encouragement. Don't worry about how small or slow your particular assignment in the kingdom is. Just be faithful. Craig Barnes pastors in Washington, D.C. He was asked not long ago to conduct the funeral of a man who had helped develop the famous Boeing 747 aircraft. After the service, he said, the man's widow was patiently listening as he commented on how remarkable it was that her late husband had helped design and build that great machine. She told him, "The truth is, he worked on one little switchbox smaller than a loaf of bread. That's all he worked on for 15 years. But when that 747 lifted off the ground for the first time, it was the happiest day of his life." The truth is, that huge plane could NOT have lifted off without that man's contribution. Whatever your simple, little part in the kingdom is today, stay faithful, because when the great harvest comes, and the kingdom "takes off" you will see then so clearly how important your efforts were, and you will know the thrill of hearing God's voice, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness." "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58       [Back to Top]