The Mighty Mustard Seed

The Mighty Mustard Seed

Mark 4:30-34

Open your Bible to Mark chapter 4.

Martha Berry was born in 1865 and was raised in Rome, Georgia. Her father owned a large plantation and was a partner in a wholesale grocery and cotton brokerage. She lived with her five sisters, two brothers and three cousin whose parents were deceased.

She was educated by tutors in her home and spent less than a year in a finishing school. She was a daddy’s girl and would often ride on horseback with him into the nearby areas visiting with the poorer landowners and tenant farmers. He father would often help these families with their needs and instilled that desire in her. She never married but wanted to make helping people her life’s work.

In the late 1890s, Martha met three young boys crossing the family's property on a Sunday afternoon. She found out that they didn’t go to school or Sunday school. They weren’t even familiar with basic stories from the Bible, so she entertained them with some of these stories. She invited them to return the next Sunday with their brothers and sisters.

Soon whole families filled a small log cabin that had been built years before near Oak Hill as a playhouse for the Berry children and later served as a quiet place for Martha to read, write and contemplate. When the group overflowed the cabin (which still stands), she had a small whitewashed school building built.

She also used an abandoned church a few miles away as well as two other facilities in neighboring towns. These four Sunday schools grew into day schools for the children.

Martha eventually decided that in order to have a sufficient impact on the children, she needed to keep them at the school rather than living at home. So, she had a dormitory built and opened the Boys Industrial School with five boarding students. Later, she would open the Martha Berry School for Girls about a mile from the boys' school.

These were high schools also offering lower-level studies in the early years. The Berry schools became models for vocational, agricultural and mechanical schools throughout the world by showing how the needs of people in poor rural areas could be met. Through her schools Berry blazed a trail for the establishment of an agricultural and mechanical school in each congressional district of Georgia.

In 1926 she established Berry Junior College, which in 1930 expanded into a four-year school.

Today, Berry College has the world’s largest college campus spanning 27,000 acres and 47 primary buildings with over 2,000 students enrolled. It is ranked as one of the top regional colleges in the South.

The college has continued Martha Berry’s focus on providing students with a comprehensive education of the head, the heart and the hands. Her motto still endures: "Not to be ministered unto, but to minister."

A school that had very humble beginnings has been a blessing to thousands of Americans.

Today, we’re going to look at another humble beginning that has produced amazing results as we discover the mighty mustard seed.

In our passage, Jesus is still teaching in parables. Actually, we’re told that this was one of His primary ways of teaching truth to people. He begins this parable by seeming to search for an illustration of the Kingdom of God. The disciples may have had some imaginative ideas about what the Kingdom of God was like.

Maybe they imagined it to be a high mountain that soared above the world, displaying its glory, power and majesty. Maybe they imagined the Kingdom of God as a mighty river that carried its life to faraway lands. Possibly their minds pictured the kingdom as a massive oak, standing tall and providing shade and shelter. We really don’t know what they were thinking, but I’m sure they were surprised when Jesus shared His illustration with them.

When Jesus began to speak, He didn’t compare the Kingdom of God to a high mountain, a mighty river or even a majestic oak. Jesus compared the Kingdom of God to a tiny mustard seed!

Jesus used the image of something very small to teach us about something larger than we can ever understand. Let’s look into the words of this parable and see the lessons Jesus wants to teach us about the Kingdom of God.

Let’s pray and then we’ll read our text.

Pray!

Mark 4:30–34 ESV

And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

The first thing we see is:

How the Kingdom Begins

In comparing the Kingdom of God to a tiny mustard seed, Jesus was using a powerful illustration. While the mustard seed is not the smallest seed known to man, it was the smallest seed planted in the gardens of Jesus’ day.

He’s probably talking about black mustard which was grown for oil as well as a condiment. The mustard seed itself is very tiny. It can take over 700 of them to make up a single gram. There are 28 grams in an ounce. That means there some 19,600 mustard seeds in one ounce. It’s a tiny seed, but it can produce a very large plant. We’ll look at that a little more in a minute.

So, Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to that teeny tiny little seed.

The truth is at that time, most people didn’t believe that much would come out Jesus or His ministry. The people could see the tiny seed but they couldn’t picture a great tree. Let’s look at some of the facts.

· Jesus was born in the tiny town of Bethlehem in abject poverty.

· He was brought up in Galilee, and no one believed that a prophet could come from there (John 7:52).

· He was raised in a Nazareth. The people of that city were considered to be wicked and worldly by the Jews.

· He had no family connections. He had no money. He had no support from the religious leaders of the day.

· Jesus was considered to be a nobody from nowhere who would amount to nothing!

· His parentage was questioned by His enemies.

· His followers were, for the most part, the dregs and rejects of society.

· His own people rejected Him.

· He was despised and rejected by men.

· The Romans eventually nailed Him to a cross and sealed Him in a tomb.

· His followers preached His resurrection, but most people ignored their message and considered them fools for following a dead man.

Even His message was hard to swallow. For many today, it still is!

After all, Jesus said to get you have to give away what you have. He told people to love their enemies. He encouraged people to turn the other cheek. He spoke of walking the second mile; succeeding through serving and denying self.

There’s no question that the Kingdom was just like that tiny, insignificant mustard seed in the beginning. No one could see what the tiny seed Jesus was sowing would become!

There are still many in our day who mock Jesus and make fun of His claims to be God in the flesh and the only Savior of men, the only way to God. There are many who believe that Jesus never rose from the dead. There are many who deny that He ever even existed.

Here’s the truth:

God sent His Son into this world. He planted Him in the insignificant soil of a backwater province of Rome called Israel. He grew up there; He lived there and He died there. He rose again, defeating the grave in that obscure place. And, the kingdom He founded by His death and resurrection continues to exist today!

So, that is how the Kingdom begins. Next, let’s look at

How the Kingdom Builds

When that teeny, tiny mustard seed is planted in good soil, it germinates and produces a very large shrub-like plant that eventually grows to resemble a tree. Some mustard plants have been known to grow as high as 9 or 10 feet tall. Something so small, with such humble beginnings, can become something that is truly amazing to behold.

Again, this is a picture of the amazing growth of the Kingdom of God. When the seed was planted in Israel, the prospects for success seemed very far away.

In the beginning there was just Jesus and a few ragtag followers. His followers were made up of some uneducated fishermen, a few revolutionaries, some women and a traitor. By the time the Day of Pentecost came around, there were still just 120 devoted followers.

But on that day, something amazing took place! Over 3,000 people came to faith in Christ. A short time later another 5,000 were saved at one time. The church began to grow at an astounding and astonishing rate. It wasn’t many days until the church in Jerusalem is said to have numbered some 50,000 people

And the thing is that was just the beginning! As the message was carried around the world, as the gospel was shared farther and farther away from Jerusalem, vast multitudes began to come to Jesus and surrender their lives to Him. Cities and nations fell on their knees in the face of the message of the Gospel of grace.

This amazing growth has continued even to this day.

Who but God knows the true count of those who have been saved from sin and eternal torment?

Everywhere that the Gospel seed had been planted, souls have been saved and lives have been changed. The church has continued to grow and Kingdom of God on earth has continued to expand. And there will come a day when a vast multitude that can’t be numbered will stand before the Lord in Heaven and praise Him for saving them by His grace.

God just has a way of bringing great things out of humble and small beginnings.

Look at David. He was a mustard seed. He was the youngest son in a family of eight boys. He was ignored and given the job no one else in the family wanted, taking care of the sheep. God took this mustard seed and made a giant-killing, king out of his life.

Think about Gideon! He was a mustard seed too. He was from the smallest family in the smallest tribe in the nation of Israel. God took Gideon and used him as a great military leader.

Now, let’s take a look at you.

If you’re a child of God today, you certainly had mustard seed beginnings! According to the Bible, you were a sinner. You were “dead in trespasses and sins.” According to Scripture, you were under a death sentence and you were headed to Hell.

But God, in His infinite grace, looked beyond what you were to see what you could become through His grace. He saved you, planted you in Jesus and now your life is bearing fruit for the glory of God.

Zechariah 4:10 asks the question, “For who has despised the day of small things?”

God can take someone who seems insignificant and unimportant and make something great out of them!

· He can take a little red-headed boy nobody wanted on their team and make him a great leader of men. He did that with Winston Churchill.

· He can take a backward, stuttering man and use him to bring the Law of God to humanity, He did that with Moses.

· He can take an awkward, shy shoe salesman and use him to shake the world for Jesus. He did that with D. L. Moody.

What could He do with your life?

We’ve look at how the Kingdom begins, how the Kingdom is built. Finally, let’s look at:

How the Kingdom Blesses

We see that a tiny seed grew into a huge plant. Its branches spread themselves wide, offering a place for the birds to rest. In the shadow of that plant the birds found shelter from the storms; rest from their weariness and shade from the heat of the sun.

The humble mustard seed produced a plant that had many uses among the human community as well. People gathered its leaves and served them up as food. The seeds were crushed and used as a condiment; the powerful flavor enhancing the bland diet of the people.

Those seeds were also used as a medicine. They were crushed and mixed with other things to make antidotes for snake, scorpion and spider bites. Poultices were made and they were used to fight colds and other physical ailments.

Just as the plant in this parable brought joy to the birds who flocked to it for shelter, the Kingdom of God has provided many benefits for those who have turned to Jesus.

Everywhere the Gospel has germinated, everywhere that it has taken root, compassion, decency and morality have sprung up. Hospitals and schools have been founded. Truth and salvation have been preached and lives have been changed.

Everywhere the Gospel has gone; it has brought about the destruction of demonism, cannibalism, polygamy, child sacrifice and thousands of other evils. The spread of the Gospel has built orphanages for the fatherless and homes for the homeless.

The Gospel has reached out to comfort the bereaved, care for the infirm, and cure the sick. The Gospel has changed individuals, communities and nations.

When the Kingdom of God moves in with divine power, the kingdom of Satan must fall before its appearance. It may have had humble beginnings, but God has used it to accomplish great and wonderful things.

Just as the birds in this parable found many great blessings under the branches of the mustard plant, those who come to Jesus find more than blessings than they can imagine.

In Him, they find:

· A shelter from the storms of life

· Rest from the weariness of sin and religious works

· Shade from the wrath of an Almighty God

· Food for the hungry soul

· A new, better life. He can take a bland and flavorless life and move into it and make that life abound with the blessings of the Lord

· He is the antidote for the terrible poison of sin

· He is the cure for the sting of death

· He is the cure for the sin sick soul

We should thank God for the blessings we find in Jesus! I’m thankful for the day that I came under the shelter of His branches! I’m thankful for the day when His grace was applied to the deadly and mortal wound of my sin and I was healed!

Some commentators interpret this parable in a different way than I have today.

They see this parable as teaching us that, while the Gospel may spread and the church may grow, it will become the dwelling place of many who have a false profession. The birds in this parable are believed to represent “evil spirits”.

Those who interpret the parable this way, do so because the birds in the parable of the soils represented devils. They believe this parable teaches us that as the truth grows, so does the opportunity for the devil to get in and work.

And I have to be honest, there is a lot of truth in this view. The devil is getting into the mix. He’s using a lot of different means to deceive people. He’s telling people what they want to hear and encouraging them to follow people who live their entire lives contrary to Scripture, people who speak and act in ways that go the opposite direction of the way we are meant to live. They hold up a Bible and say they’re a Christian and that’s all it takes.

People are deceived today.

But I also believe that the birds in this parable represent lost sinners, wherever they may be found. Just as birds find shelter, rest and shade under the branches of a tree; lost sinners have the same hope when they fly to Jesus for salvation of their soul.

I don’t know how you feel about it, but I am glad there is a place in Jesus for me. I’m so glad that I can tell you that there is a place in Jesus for you too!

So, what is the big message of the mighty mustard seed?

I guess that you could say this, “The Kingdom of God may have had humble beginnings, but it will expand and grow until it has a universal impact.

The secondary message is this: “God can take something that seems so small and insignificant and He can transform it into something real big!”

He has done that with the Kingdom of God. He has done that in many of you. He can do that for all who will come to Him by faith.

You should take a look at your own life today. If you’re not a child of God, you should take your life and place it in the hands of God. You might think He won’t have you and can’t use you; the fact is, He won’t turn you away and He’ll do more in and through your life than you ever could have imagined.

If you’re a child of God, you should take your life and present it before Him today. He can take you and use you in ways you would never believe. Give Him your life and watch Him work!

Bring your mustard seed to Jesus today and watch Him take it and turn it into a massive plant for the glory of God.