Three Parables on Kingdom Growth

Three Parables on Kingdom Growth

Matthew 13:24-43

I. Jesus spoke in Parables to explain Spiritual Truths.

A. We see this in Matthew’s gospel.

1. He spoke to the multitude in parables (34). This verse means that primarily Jesus taught by using parables when He was addressing the crowds. Verse 35 is a quote from Psalm 78. The point is that it was prophesied that this is the manner in which the Messiah would teach. Jesus method of using parables was proof that He is indeed the Messiah.

2. We see many kingdom parables in Matthew. The kingdom of heaven is like… a man that sowed good seed in his field, a mustard seed, leaven, treasure hid in a field, merchant man, a net, householder, a king whose son was getting married, ten virgins, a man traveling in a far country. The kingdom is the rule of God. In a sense it has already come because Christ has come. He has begun building Hs kingdom. Christ is ruling even now through the hearts of His people. However, the kingdom has not fully come yet. Jesus taught us to pray “Thy kingdom come…” Eventually Christ’s rule will be over the entire creation with no rivals to contend with Him.

3. The disciples had trouble understanding the parables. Look at verse 36. This is what made the disciples different. They wanted to know the meaning of what Jesus said. If we are going to understand the deep things of God we are going to have to have a passionate desire to know them. Knock, seek, ask, etc.

B. In this section we have three parables about kingdom growth.

1. The wheat and the tares. This will teach us that the kingdom will grow, but not everyone will be a part of the kingdom. Jesus never taught anything close to universalism. Universalism does not come from the Bible.

2. The mustard seed. This will teach us that despite the very small and seeming insignificance of the kingdom, it will grow larger than one could ever imagine.

3. The leaven. This will teach that despite the fact that followers of Christ were few in the beginning, they would have a great influence on the world.

II. The Wheat and the Tares.

A. This is a story of a man that planted a wheat crop.

1. He planted good seed in his field. He did everything he was supposed to do to bring a harvest. While he was a sleep an enemy came and planted tares among the wheat. “tares” is what is known as “darnel weed”. It was a weed that looked identical to wheat. You couldn’t tell the difference between the two until the plants were mature. This was actually a pretty common thing for an enemy to do. In fact it was so common that the Romans had a law on the books forbidding it. It was a way that a person could be hurt financially.

2. When the harvest began to mature the servants of the farmer recognized what had happened. They are confused, they know their boss is a better farmer than this; he wouldn’t have sowed bad seed. The farmer realizes what has happened and tells them. Immediately they want to try and save the crop. You have to admire their zeal. That would have been hard work.

3. The farmer gives instructions. He tells them to just let the two grow together. He fears it will ruin the crop if you try to pull up all those weeds. The roots of the plants would have been intertwined. At the harvest they would separate the two.

B. Jesus gives the interpretation of this parable (37-43).

1. He identifies all the important parts. The Sower is Jesus, the field is the world, the good seed are believers, the tares are unbelievers, the enemy is Satan, the harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are the angels.

2. Christ has children in this world. The children of God are those that have received the Word of God on good soil. This world is His field and we are His harvest, we are children of the Most High God. We were nothing but dust, dead in our sins. God by His grace sowed the seed of the Word of God in our hearts, He rained showers of mercy and grace and out of the miry clay sprung eternal life. We have risen from the dust of the earth as flowers of grace because of what Christ has done for us. This was his intention. He intended on plowing, planting, and producing a people for Himself.

3. Satan has children in this world (38-39). Here is another verse that makes it clear that we are not all God’s children. We are all somebody’s spiritual children. Either the devil is our spiritual father (John 8:44) or God is. Satan wants to destroy the harvest of God. He sows his seed among God’s field. Note that Satan’s influence is worldwide. He operates in every continent, country, state, city, village, island, town; you name it Satan is there sowing tares among the wheat. The world is condemned and he is doing his best to keep it that way. He wants the tares to overtake the wheat. He wants to destroy God’s harvest. And the best way for him to do that is or him to keep people from coming to Christ. He has an endless number of ways that he does that. But be of good cheer, the gates of hell shall not prevail.

4. One day the children of God will be separated from the children of the devil. Jesus makes it a point to let us know that this is not the time for that to happen. Note that it is not the children’s responsibility to do the separating, it is the angels. The church has tried to do separating in the past and it has greatly hurt the church. In the Middle Ages the crusades were an especially ugly chapter in church history. The so called Christian church killed Muslims, Jews and non-Christians believing they were doing the will of God. During a time known as the Inquisitions the Catholic church killed many people that did not give in to their brand of Christianity. They should have read this parable. Their actions greatly hurt Christianity and the church still has a black eye from their ungodly zeal. Ours is an age of evangelism. Judgment will come. But now the church is called to evangelize. The life of Christ perfectly illustrates this. At any time he could have killed, maimed, or removed His enemies. Instead he loved, ministered to and invited them to find forgiveness.

III. The Mustard Seed (31-32).

A. Here is another parable about farming.

1. This farmer planted a single mustard seed in his field. The mustard plant was a widely used herb. Its seed was very small. The smallest among garden seeds used in Palestine. It would have seemed so small and insignificant, especially because the farmer only planted one.

2. Jesus describes the amazing size in which the mustard seed grows. Compared to other plants it looks like a tree. It could grow 12-15 feet high. This would be large enough for small birds to perch. While 12-15 feet high may not be humongous, Jesus point is that in comparison to how small the plant was when it started, the seed plant is extremely large.

B. The mustard seed illustrates the kingdom.

1. The kingdom began very small and insignificant. Jesus chose twelve and one of them was a devil. The men He chose were like the mustard seed, seemingly small and insignificant. Even Jesus seemed to be small and insignificant in the eyes of the religious leaders and much of the people in that culture.

2. The kingdom of God would grow from a very small group to an extremely large one. In the gospels we start with eleven. In Acts 1:15 we have 120 followers of Christ. In Acts 2 we add 3,000 and the rest is history. By the way, the church is still growing. No one could have ever imagined that.

3. What an encouragement this should be even for the smallest of churches. God uses small things. He kills giants with rocks, & feeds multitudes with scraps. We may be a small people but we have a big God. I don’t think we can even imagine what God could do with us as a small church. If we would have faith the size of a mustard seed he would do great things in our church.

IV. The Leaven (Matthew 13:33).

A. Leaven was a common household item.

1. Women used it on a regular basis to make bread. They would save a piece of leavened dough. They would then place that in the next batch they were making. It would cause the bread to rise, making it more appealing and tastier.

2. The woman in our parable put it in three measures of meal. This would be equivalent to our bushel. That is a lot of bread but remember it was the major food item of the day. This is the amount of bread Sarah made the Lord and the two angelic visitors (Gen. 18:6) and the amount Gideon prepared for the Angel of the Lord (Judges 6:19).

3. Some believe that the leaven represents evil. That is not the case. Leaven does not always represent evil in the Bible. It represents influence. During Passover Jews could not eat leavened bread but during the Feast of Pentecost they were commanded to (Lev. 23:17). Jews ate leavened bread on a regular basis.

B. The Leaven represents the kingdom.

1. The kingdom of God would greatly influence the world. God has placed the gospel in the hearts of believers and put them in the world. There are a lot more unbelievers than believers, but believers will have a great influence and transform the world.

2. The kingdom of God brings transformation. It takes a tasteless, dry, empty world and fills it with joy and meaning. The world is a different place because of the kingdom of God. Believers have been at the forefront of transformation all over the world. Christians have reformed education, been at the forefront t of rights for women, children, and minorities. Christians have built orphanages, ministered to the diseased, helped the addicted, fed the poor, housed the homeless. If you take the influence of the church out of the world it would be a very ugly place. While there are more tares than wheat and it seems that the tares are taking over, know that the church has a greater influence I this world than you can imagine.

3. The influence will remain. God always has a remnant in every generation. He is like the lady that saves a piece of leavened dough for the next batch of bread. God will slip His message into every generation through believers and just like leaven, they will have an influence on their culture.

C. The influence will continue until the end of the age.

1. I want us to go back to the parable of the wheat and tares for a moment. We can’t forget that there are only two groups in this world. There is the good seed and the bad see. The church will grow, like the mustard seed and influence like the leaven. People are going to be saved but people are also going to reject the gospel. That is a very important part of this section.

2. The lost will be cats into hell. Look at verses 40-42. That is a sobering reality. It gives us a glimpse at the horror of eternity without Christ. It is not symbolic. There is a literal wailing and gnashing of teeth.

3. The saved will be gathered into heaven. Look at verse 43. The righteous will shine. This is the glorified church. We were the light of the world, now we are lights in heaven. We will shine in heaven. Let me ask you this. Are you shining on earth? Verse 43 is actually an allusion to Daniel 12;3 which says “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever”. Daniel says that wise people are soul winners and that soul winners shine in heaven. That fits well with this section on influence and kingdom growth. We ought to be influencing those around us. We ought to be seeing the kingdom of God grow. We can’t be overwhelmed by the tares that surround us. We just need to keep growing and influencing until Jesus returns. He will judge the tares and reward the righteous.