BIG THINGS AND LITTLE PACKAGES

BIG THINGS AND LITTLE PACKAGES With grateful acknowledgement of these sources of direction and inspiration: the Holy Spirit; the Word of God; Rich Bersett, “Diminutive Dynamite”; Chalres Colson, Against the Night; Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah; Michael Green, Matthew for Today; Helmut Thielicke, The Waiting Father September 18, 2005 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction Big things come in small packages. One of the smallest things easily visible to us is also one of the most common elements on earth—sand. Multiple billions of trillions of tiny pieces of alloy, each one only a thousandth of an inch across, dress out large segments of our planet. Sand—you see it at the beach, in the desert and in the playground. You wipe it off your feet after an oceanside walk. You mix it with water and chemical bonding agents and make it into concrete. Not much value, really. At least you might have said that 50 years ago. Today sand is being mined melted and re-made into quartz silicon wafers about 1/500th the thickness of a human hair, and these little wafers are now powering computers throughout the globe. Sand—big things often come in small packages. Consider the value of a small rubber o-ring, three tenths of an inch wide. Not too impressive. Twenty years ago a technician placed one in the aft field joint of the Solid Rocket Booster to stop gases from escaping. No one knows if it was a contaminate or the cold weather; it could have been any number of complex compression problems, or simple human error during manufacturing; but when a pair of these tiny o-rings failed to do what they were designed to do, the Orbiter Challenger Space Shuttle exploded into a million pieces before millions of horrified viewers. Just 73 seconds into their flight all seven crew members were incinerated. Little things are often very important. Tiny viruses the size of a pin head, heart valves no larger than a man’s thumbnail, single votes in a national election, a package of explosives no bigger than a backpack, an ill-chosen word from an angry loved one—little things have tremendous power. Read two short parables with me from the 13th chapter of Matthew, verses 31-33. 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. 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.” The Unexpected Effectiveness of Mustard Seed-Size Ministry To understand this parable fully we need to realize the mood of those who are gathered around Jesus. These people had left their jobs and homes, many of them, and were actually considering making that a permanent decision. They are beginning to wonder: “Where’s the pay-off? If the kingdom of heaven is coming there ought to be some fireworks here pretty shortly. A few poor people and sick people have been healed, but the upper classes have pretty much ignored Jesus, if not rejected him. We’ve got to move on—we have a kingdom to establish, important people to convert, Rome to conquer!” And here is our leader laughing and playing with children and eating meals with tax collectors and sinners!” As Helmut Thielicke put it, “The Greek and Roman centers of culture pay no attention to this storm in a Galilean teacup…” Jesus told them the kingdom of God had begun, but, frankly, they were beginning to wonder, “Where?” Fairly meager results from the master’s ministry. A bunch of dirty children run after him, the beggars and prostitutes are hanging around. Even those he healed don’t come around any more! His followers with their shaky loyalty must have been wondering, “And this is what I’m staking the rest of my life on? The fishing business is starting to look more attractive again!” Knowing the frailty of his fickle followers, Jesus was about to address the issue of the apparent lack of kingdom pizzazz. His point will be to convince the faithful that things aren’t always as insignificant and meager as they seem. Things that appear small and powerless are actually the very ingredients of the kingdom. It would take faith on the part of these disciples to trust that these apparent baby steps of ministry, this valuable time seemingly wasted on the fringe of society, that there were big things in these small packages. We’ve already heard Jesus tell parables about soils and toil, seeds and weeds, tales of disturbing judgment scenes and huge harvests. Angels gathering up people like sheaves and delivering them to heaven and hell—all these promises for the future—what about today? What about our lives, our part in God’s kingdom? I can hear some of them saying, “I’m one of God’s people, sure, but the Romans have us by the throat, the priests are corrupt, I’ve never been the recipient of a miracle, there hasn’t been a prophet since Malachi more than 400 years ago… Is there anything for me? Can someone as small as I have any lasting impact?” I confess to you that it is often frustrating when the church seems weak and anemic. It bothers me a great deal when there are long stretches between converts, and this congregation goes through seasons of non-growth, and we even lose some. It’s hard to sense the power of the kingdom when people leave one church and go to another for petty reasons. It’s tempting to lose sight of the vision of the harvest when it feels like most church members are more interested in their comfort than their commitment. It’s hard to stay positive when many around you couldn’t seem to care less about the kingdom. Well, this parable is for me, and for others who sometimes feel that way as well. Once again, the Lord would remind us that He is in charge; He loves His church and He is expanding His kingdom faithfully; and He is using our sometimes feeble efforts at serving Him. Be encouraged, Christian, that if you are serving Him, nothing is lost and He is applying your every effort in the completion of His will. The mustard seed Jesus mentioned that Jesus referred to was about the smallest thing you could see with the naked eye—even smaller than the variety pictured here which you can pick up at the garden store. The seed He talked about was about the size of a granule of table salt. Just moments before Jesus told a story about a farmer out broadcasting wheat seed all over the countryside. Now we have this almost humorous image of a farmer carrying one microcosmic seed out to the field, digging a half-inch deep hole and burying it before the wind blows it away. But the Lord explains that from this tiniest of seeds will come the largest garden plant fall. In fact when compared to the other garden plants, and compared to the size of its seed, it is like a tree with birds building nests in its branches. Big things come in little packages. Here’s the point—the kingdom of heaven is like that! It looks hopelessly small and anemic at first, but it will eventually grow and become huge and impressive to the glory of God! It was the prophet Zechariah who spoke about the project of rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem in the days following the exile. It looked impossible, so thorough was its destruction years before. The people had worked long and hard and only the foundation was finished. They were ready to give up. In the midst of his own doubts and fears the Lord spoke to and through Zechariah these powerful words: “Not ye might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the Lord. [webmasters note: Zechariah 4:6] Then God asks His prophet, “Who despises the day of small things?” [webmasters note: Zechariah 4:10] and it is clearly a rebuke! We must resist the temptation to think that God’s kingdom is not working because it doesn’t look strong or powerful. When a tiny, scrawny seed falls into the sail it doesn’t look very promising. “So it is with my kingdom,” Jesus says. That’s what this parable is all about. If Jesus were here with us today he might make His point with a slightly different parable. There was a man who owned a little caf?in Corbin, KY. And people faithfully came to his little caf?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 Harlan Sandeers’ chicken was finger-lickin’ good. Or maybe: 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. It looked hopeless, but they kept working at their dream in Kitty Hawk, N.C., and now, well, just look in the sky and see for yourself—a hunk of metal weighing many tons is flying! Or maybe He’d say: There was this small church who thought they could help some nomadic people in Niger, Africa, hear the gospel and respond in faith. How crazy was that—to believe they could have an impact for God’s kingdom that far away. But they prayed, and they wrote, and they gave, and they went—six of them, and the very people for whom they prayed by name came to Christ and are now leading the church in the town of Dakoro and are reaching out to their tribe in the greater sub-Sahara. And this little group prayed for the church in Castanhal, Brazil to reach many people along the rivers in Amazonia. They prayed, they visited, they ministered, they gave, and they even released one of their elders and his family to go and serve there, and this very day that church is baptizing 40 converts! You know, when Brent and Connie and their boys left us (one year ago this week!) I confess that I was a very sad pastor. One of only three elders here—and a really good elder, one of our best families and small group leaders—was leaving. I am such a weak man. I was sorrowful. I could see nothing good in it at all. But while this church felt like it suffered loss, the kingdom of God and the church at large profited greatly. Those converts are partly an extension of your love and selflessness and giving and praying. And while we find people resistant uninterested in the gospel here in our materialistic, affluent culture, people in Brazil are hungry for the hope of the gospel. Who despises the day of small things? The Mystery of Leaven’s Influence Let’s consider this second small parable in 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 takes us from the world of agriculture into the kitchen of a homemaker who is baking bread. While she is kneading a batch of bread dough the baker works in a small dose of yeast, or leaven. Within a short period of time this tiny bit of yeast will permeate the entire batch of dough. And the dough obediently rises in preparation for the oven. The mystery of leaven is how it so perfectly, so uniformly permeates that lump of dough—all on its own, and then through some God-ordained chemical process the dough is bloated for baking. Jesus says the kingdom of heaven is like that. It secretly, quietly, mysteriously infiltrates the culture into which it is introduced and affects it powerfully. It is a contagion. It influences first one person and then another, slowly, methodically pervading the culture, one gospel responder after another. Before you know it, entire neighborhoods, counties and countries are changed by it. Remember, the kingdom of heaven is “anywhere someone is trusting and obeying the King.” What we must hear in the study of these kingdom parables is this message: we can trust that God is moving His kingdom forward. And we can actively participate in that dynamic kingdom expansion by obeying our King. Involvement in the expansion of the kingdom of God on earth is not an option for the genuine disciple of Jesus. We are called equipped and empowered to be witnesses of the power of the gospel by our actions and our words. If you are not trusting and obeying the will of the King you are not a genuine disciple of Jesus. Jesus spoke of His followers as salt in another metaphor. Salt influences the flavor and preservation of its environment. So does the gospel. Like salt, you can’t see the gospel of the kingdom doing its work, but sooner or later the entire culture begins to taste better. The message of Christ changes a person from within into the image of Christ. Sometimes that change is slow, even imperceptible, but he is being changed—that is the work of the Holy Spirit, changing Christ’s people, from one glory to another. Soon his family is positively influenced. Genuine conversion never produces long-term negative effects—only positive long-term effects. The miracle and mystery of leaven-like influence is it not only affects the believer’s relationships and the atmosphere of his home, but it even convicts others to join the kingdom. But the leaven isn’t finished yet—the influence continues as neighbors, other relatives, co-workers begin to see and hear the gospel’s power working through the believers’ lives. Some of them respond in faith and become kingdom people through faith in Christ. And they become carriers of this great gospel virus. While all this kingdom encroachment is going on in households and circles of influence, other people in the world around don’t take much notice. There are no press releases about the spread of Christian influence and the numbers of people coming to faith in Christ. The city council and state legislatures don’t concern themselves with such things. There’s no fanfare (except as the angels rejoice in heaven). One day, the realization dawns that most of the teachers, counselors and social workers are Christians now. The mayor is a believer through the influence of his cousin. Half the police officers have given their lives to Christ being influenced by the witness of that highly respected sergeant who became a Christian not long ago. Kids in school have a whole new attitude. Families are changing for the better. People are friendlier. Dishonorable businesses are closing down for lack of customers. Suddenly there is a new Christian bookstore, the church buildings are full on Sunday mornings. Gang members are starting to share Christ with one another instead of shooting one another. What’s that? You don’t believe it’s possible? Take it up with Jesus. It’s His idea, His plan. He’s the one who told the story about the leaven. He’s the one who insists that the kingdom will grow quietly into something you would never have guessed possible. You win a prison guard and soon his whole family is baptized. Convince an Andrew and he’ll bring his brother Simon. Lead an adulterous woman to the kingdom and watch a whole Samaritan village come to Christ. Baptize an Ethiopian treasurer and see all of Africa influenced for Christ. The kingdom of heaven is a kingdom of leaven. It’s all about influencing others. It’s been that way for two thousand years. An unbiased analysis of world history and US history will demonstrate that the church of Jesus Christ was right smack in the middle of bring good influence to cultures. Everything good and wholesome that has even taken place in the advancement of education, science, health and government came through the influence of believers. When societies have crumbled and deteriorated it has been precisely because the influence of the church has been snuffed out. A couple years ago Morely Safer did a segment on 60 minutes, attacking Christian hospitals, saying the largest health care institutions in the United States are controlled by the church. But he wasn’t thanking God for it, he was complaining, saying it’s just not right that 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 faith! What a joke! Remove religious faith and you’ve disemboweled the institution and taken the care out of health care. You’re left with nothing but a profit motive—and I don’t want to go to that hospital! Charles Colson in his prophetic and powerful book, Against the Night, says the church of Jesus Christ serves as “…outposts of truth decency, and civilization in the darkening culture around us. For eve though the 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 an offense to the world, at least at first. We are countercultural. All that we live and teach is subversive to the evil world systems, and they are threatened by that. Our message is not easily received by those who are blinded by the enemy. The best communication of the kingdom message is changed lives—that’s how leaven-like influence travels best. The Point of the Parables The kingdom of heaven is advancing even when it seems ludicrously small and hopelessly ineffective. God is using the secret, quiet, mysterious influence of the gospel always and everywhere the church is faithful to her mission. It is hardly ever explosive, but it is a steady, lasting influence. Take hope when that influence seems to have slowed down or stopped. The kingdom may be driven underground momentarily, but by the power of God is has not stopped expanding and progressing. Never flag in zeal, said Paul, but keep on serving Him faithfully. Nazism appeared to have ground the kingdom to a halt and stripped its power, but the church is very much alive in Germany today. Communism gloated that it had killed Christianity in China, but the gospel was advancing underground and gathering steam during that persecution and the threats did not deter the church’s mission, as the blood of the martyrs fueled the kingdom’s advance, albeit underground. You can’t stop the church of God by trying to snuff it out. Every form of opposition strengthens the cause of the gospel. Now, this last comment. The kingdom agenda always uses people—people of faith. God doesn’t typically send angels to evangelize your neighbors, and He isn’t in the habit of personally visiting lost people to invite them to church. But He is intensely interested in using you as a vessel of His saving message. People-to-people contact is His chosen strategy. If you are in a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, He is wanting to use YOU to help spread His kingdom. That’s right YOU are the mustard seed planted in your neighborhood, family and workplace. YOU are the leaven of the kingdom worked into the rubric of your culture to influence it for God. Your mission is stay as close to the Lord Jesus as you can, listening to His guidance, obeying His word and being an ambassador for Him. Influence? It will happen. Trust Him. Don’t ever worry that you’re not effective enough. Don’t worry that your role is so small or your assignment in the kingdom is not very big or exciting. Do what He has called you to do. Be faithful to Him and He will faithfully expand the kingdom through you. Craig Barnes is a pastor and he was asked a couple years ago to conduct the funeral of a man who had helped develop the Boeing 747 aircraft. After the funeral service, he said, the man’s widow visited with him for a moment. Barnes 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 only one little switchbox smaller than a loaf of bread. And 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, even when it feels insignificant and unsuccessful. Because when the great harvest comes, and the kingdom “takes off”, you will see so clearly then how important your efforts were for Him. 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. 1 Corinthians 15:58 – 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.   [Back to Top]