Kingdom Growth and Value - Matthew 13:31-33, 44-46

We will be looking at four short parables today found in Matthew 13:31-33, and 44-46. These two sets of parables deal with the growth and the value of the Kingdom of God. They are separated in the chapter by the explanation of the parable of the wheat and the weeds that we looked at last week, but they really fit together quite nicely.

Thinking of growth and value brings up the concept of investment, because what is investment all about if not the idea of growth and potential value?

You may or may not be much of a stock trader or an investor, but there are many people who are kicking themselves at this point in life because they didn’t invest in a certain company or companies when they were at their onset.

For instance - you’ve all heard of the company Apple - well, if you had invested $1,000 in Apple in 2001 and didn’t touch it, that same investment would be worth around $400,000.00 now.

Or what about the company Amazon? You’ve probably heard of that. Well, in 1997, if you had invested $1,000 in Amazon, then that same investment today would be worth a little over $1,300,000.

Now let me reassure you, I am not speaking from experience. I wasn’t thinking much about investing in the stock market in 1997. But the idea of investment and value - growth and potential value - are familiar to us.

Now, we understand and can grasp on to those ideas when it comes to tangible and immediate things like Money. But what about he growth and value of the Kingdom of God?

If the question under the surface last week was “why isn’t the Kingdom taking off quicker,” Jesus keeps answering that question with these parables as well. The answer seems to be in two main things - small beginnings and hidden value. Small beginnings and hidden value.

Amazon and Apple were both these kind of companies that started in a garage, or started in inconspicuous ways, yet unknown to most people, they had incredible potential for growth and value. Certainly some people took a risk, and by taking that risk they have become very wealthy.

But when it comes to the Kingdom, we aren’t talking about risk in the same sense. And that is kind of what Jesus is answering with these two sets of parables.

If his followers were thinking, will this work out? Is this going to go anywhere? Is this worth it? Then the answer that these parables give is “yes.”

Now, before we jump in - I want to make a bridge to application here at the forefront. Because we are reading these parables from the other side of much of what would “prove” them to be true. The growth and the value of God’s Kingdom is much more visibly apparent to our eyes than it was to the Apostles at this time. After all, Christ hadn’t even died and resurrected yet.

But we are still prone to ask, naturally at times, is it all worth it? Is the life of following Jesus worth it? Is taking up the cross worth it? And in the same way, the answer that these parables give is “yes.”

2 Corinthians 4:17 ESV

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,

1 Peter 1:8 ESV

Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,

Jesus shows His followers that while the Kingdom of Heaven may appear to have small beginnings and a hidden value, it is a kingdom with big future and it is a worthwhile endeavor.

1. Growth - Vs. 31-33

The first set of parables has to do with growth. Jesus comes back to the imagery of planting with the first one, and though he departs from it on the second one, he sticks with the theme of common, everyday sights and sounds for his hearers - so lets try to get the picture from these two and then we’ll talk about their implications.

A. The Mustard Seed

Matthew 13:31–32 (ESV)

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.”

The Kingdom, Jesus says, is like a “grain of mustard seed.” Or simply, “like a mustard seed.”

Mustard plants are not that common here in Vermont, at least not the kind that Jesus and his disciples may have been looking at in their minds eyes.

Mustard was a cultivated plant in that day. It would have been sown in the garden with other edible plants or plants for making spices.

Now, in this parable, we don’t have the explanation from Jesus - but it is also very simple, and in these cases, there really is intended to be one major meaning.

A man sows the mustard seed in his field - or in his garden.

There are two operative parts of this parable, really. The fact that the mustard seed was sown, and the fact that it grows.

Sowing, and growth. Sowing, and growth.

We have seen sowing in both of the previous parables that we have looked at. The first was the sowing of the Word of God in the hearts of man. And the second was the sowing of the sons of the Kingdom throughout the world.

This time, the Kingdom is the mustard seed that is sown in the garden, and grows to great heights.

Now, there are two questions about this parable that many people ask - and even cause some to doubt or ridicule.

The first is the statement that the mustard seed is the smallest of all the seeds.

If Jesus is speaking scientifically about all the seeds in the world, then technically that statement is not accurate - because as it has been pointed out, there are smaller seeds.

Now, did Jesus know there were smaller seeds? Yes, I’m sure that he did. Was he being purposefully misleading here to make a point? I don’t think so.

The idea here is the seeds and the plants of the garden. Those which were cultivated for food or spice.

The mustard seed was the smallest seed in that day commonly planted for food or cultivation. There were seeds for flowers that were smaller, but a flower was not in mind for this parable. A plant that started small and grew very large was - and that was the mustard seed.

The other question that comes up, is the mustard plant a tree?

Well, the mustard plants we have in the united states typically don’t reach the size of trees. Although, they do grow incredibly quickly.

But, the plants that Jesus and his disciples would have had in mind often did reach the height of trees. Commonly to 12 or 13 feet, and at times up to 28 or 30 feet. And typically the crown of the plant is as broad as its height. So you could have potentially had mustard plants that were 20 feet tall or greater, with a spread of growth that was 20 feet wide or greater.

That is certainly large enough to be tree-like, and indeed, large enough for birds to land and nest in it.

So the smallest of seeds grows quite quickly into a large and prominent plant - larger than any other plant in the garden.

The Kingdom, then, Jesus says, would start out small, but from its inconspicuous beginnings, would grow to considerable size.

Its hard to know exactly what to make of the birds that nest in the branches. People have argued a bit over that meaning, whether it is positive or negative. We can’t say certainly - the main point is miraculous growth, and the birds give the idea of those from the outside taking refuge, or finding home and shelter. So at least, that is an image. The Kingdom of God will reach such a place that it gives shelter and comfort to those on the outside.

In Daniel, there is a prophecy to Nebuchadnezzar about his kingdom that is very similar to this.

Daniel 4:12 ESV

Its leaves were beautiful and its fruit abundant, and in it was food for all. The beasts of the field found shade under it, and the birds of the heavens lived in its branches, and all flesh was fed from it.

And in Ezekiel, Ezekiel prophecies of the fall of Assyria with similar language.

Ezekiel 31:6 ESV

All the birds of the heavens made their nests in its boughs; under its branches all the beasts of the field gave birth to their young, and under its shadow lived all great nations.

So the picture is of those kingdoms growing to such size that the nations come and rest in the branches. Finding shelter, respite, provision, and comfort.

With that in mind, we can imagine how Jesus might have been referring to the Kingdom of God in that manner, then.

In the disciples eyes, there was insignificance and minority, but Jesus knew that it wouldn’t always be that way. There would be incredible growth, so much so that others from all the nations might find respite and peace in the kingdom.

Now, there is a debate about whether the birds are “in the kingdom” or just benefiting from it. But that brings up an interesting thing. Because, as the Kingdom of God is supposed to be a microcosm and the place where God is reigning in the hearts of his people, there should be the sense in which the world around benefits from the common grace of that.

And certainly that has happened. Christians around the world have and are starting hospitals and orphanages and shelters and food banks. Christians have come up with world-changing inventions and ideas. Christians have developed resources and provided services that have benefited countless people who never entered the Kingdom of God, yet they were sheltered in the branches, so to speak.

And some do enter - some do go from being a weed to wheat, so to speak. And in benefiting from the righteousness and the good grace in the people of the Kingdom, they have seen and tasted a bit of God’s goodness.

And wasn’t that the promise all along? Psalm 117:1

Psalm 117:1 ESV

Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples!

Revelation 7:9 ESV

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands,

So the tiny mustard seed of the kingdom grows into a large enough and spreads wide enough to shelter the peoples of the nations.

B. The Leavened Bread

In the second parable, the imagery shifts from farming to baking. Now, there is a tie in the pictures, because the crop in the second parable was wheat, and wheat is ground into flour. So Jesus hasn’t strayed far from those common experiences and normal life things.

Matthew 13:33 (ESV)

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.”

When the pandemic first began in the spring of 2020, I fund myself bored out of my mind at home - like many did. And of all the things and skills that I could have learned, the one that ended up finding me was breadmaking.

Now, I didn’t become a master breadmaker, but I did grab on to 2-3 recipes and learned how to make bread, bagels, pizza dough, english muffins, and few other things.

That was the first time in my life that I had every experienced the working of dough, and more specifically, the rising of dough.

Most people use instant yeast now, and in this passage you may even have the word “yeast” in your translation, but the word is not “yeast” as we think of it, but leaven.

Leaven, in the vast majority of all cases in Jesus day, was what we would think of as a bread starter.

You may keep a bread starter at home. I tried that for a while, but I didn’t make the bread often enough and I would forget to feed and tend the starter so it didn’t pan out for me.

But the Jewish people knew all about their bread starters. Often times a little piece of bread starter would be the first gift given to a young lady who had just been married. It was a tie to her family past, but also a gift for her future as she would then make thousands of loaves of bread beginning with that one bit of starter.

And thousands of loaves is no exaggeration, because there was fresh bread made every day except the sabbath day. In every home, the process repeated day after day.

Wheat grain ground into fine flour, the flour mixed with water and maybe a bit of salt, the dough made, and a little bit of bread starter or “leaven” would be kneaded into the dough and it would be allowed to rise.

That’s the image - that’s the parable.

Now, some like to grab on to the idea that leaven is sometimes used as a picture of sin in the Bible, and they sort of turn this parable on its head.

But the straightforward reading is the idea of the spread of the Kingdom.

Jesus says “the kingdom is like leaven.” So the straightforward reading is that the leaven is the Kingdom. Anything else is a stretch of what he actually says.

And also, leaven is used as a picture of sin in the bible sometimes, but it is less a picture of the sin and more a picture of the spread of it. A picture of something that permeates.

When the Israelites left Egypt, they were in a hurry and they didn’t make leavened bread - it didn’t have time to rise. So they made unleavened bread, and they celebrate that time with a feast even to this day.

They were also told to leave the egyptian leaven behind - to sort of cut ties from their past and not let that spread into their future.

But this leaven is the Kingdom of God - this leaven is a leaven that must spread.

The woman puts the leaven into three measures of flour. That is a lot of flour - something like the equivalent of 30 quarts or more! But that wouldn’t have been unheard of, especially if she was preparing for a feast or guests.

That is actually the same amount of flour that Sarah prepared for the Angels of God in the book of Genesis, and the amount that Hannah prepared when she offered Samuel as a Servant of the Temple - So Jesus was making a tie there as well, apparently it wasn’t unheard of to make this much bread!

But that bread starter - that leaven - slowly worked its way through all that dough, until the whole lump was permeated and had risen.

So it is with the Kingdom. It had small and hidden beginnigns. In fact, the whole idea of it was hidden for centuries. But now it is permeating and working through the world.

Consider this. When Jesus was on the earth, He had, for most of his time, 12 close followers and maybe 100 or so others who really stuck with him.

At his ascension in Acts, there were 120 people there. That probably wasn’t every person who followed him, but that’s not a mega-congregation by any means.

Quickly though, we see the spread begin. At the sermon on Pentecost, over 3000 people at one time believed and were baptized.

A little later in acts 4, another 5000 believed at one time.

By the time we get to acts 17, those on the outside called the disciples the ones who “turned the world upside down” with their message.

We spoke last week about how the kingdom has spread all throughout the world. We may be in a bit of a dry season in our own area. We should pray for revival among believers and of the spread of the Gospel here. But we shouldn’t be fooled - the gospel is still spreading like wildfire in other parts of the world. And much of it in places where the believers have to worship underground.

The Kingdom is growing, and will grow, until one day that passage in revelation comes true - that people from every people, tribe, tongue, and nation will be praising and glorifying God.

2. Value - Vs. 44-46

We move then from growth to value. The growth in those parables was from very small to quite large. Here, we see value, but it is value that is hidden or unexpected.

A. The Treasure in a Field

Matthew 13:44 (ESV)

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

This parable, too, is short. And just at the first glance, it has ties to the last one.

The woman in that parable “hid” the leaven in three measures of flour. Here the Kingdom is a treasure that is “hidden” in a field.

Everyone likes a good buries treasure story, and well, in days gone by, there would have been more of those than we probably think!

There were no banks, etc. Keeping goods safe was only as good as you could hide them.

The rule was that if you found a treasure, you were the rightful owner of it. Unless you found it while working for someone else - then it was rightfully theirs. So the only way to secure it for yourself in that case, was to buy the property you found it on, then everything there was yours.

Here is a man, working in a field. If he is working in a field, he is not a rich man - a common man. But he stumbles across a treasure. He wasn’t looking for it.

We could all imagine the emotion of this scene. What do I do? This is incredible! Life changing! Nobody else knows about this. What do I do?

So he makes a plan. He buries the treasure back, finished his work, and went immediately to work selling everything else that he owned so he can scrounge just enough to buy the field.

Notice, he does it “in his joy.” He joyfully becomes incredibly poor - selling every asset just to own one field. Typically that would have been a foolish move, but in this case, he was wise as could be.

*** WALLET $20 ***

*** BOOKSTORE HIDDEN CASH***

B. The Pearl of Great Price

The second parable is very similar.

Matthew 13:45–46 (ESV)

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Here the story is a bit different, because the man in the field wasn’t looking for treasure at all. This man was looking for pearls, but he never expected to find what he did.

This man had some experience with treasure already - he was a merchant. No doubt, he knew his pearls. Pearls were some of the most valuable items and gems in that day. It is no wonder the image of New Jerusalem is of entire gates made of a single pearl. That would be an image of riches beyond compare.

Well, this merchant knew his pearls - but he met his final pearl this day. A pearl so great that he, too, sold everything else to secure this one pearl. Which is amazing, because that would have meant selling all his other pearls as well - things he treasured greatly.

Both men sold everything for the value of the treasure. They both became poor to become very rich.

Forsaking all for Christ’s Kingdom is finding a hidden treasure worth exceedingly more than the asking price.

You might ask the question here, do we have to but ourselves into this Kingdom? Not at all - we enter the Kingdom of God by being Born again from Above. That is how John explains it. We enter the Kigndom by Grace, through the saving power of God.

But, once we are believers, once we are born again, we are told that the price of being a faithful follower of Jesus is often high.

Matthew 16:24–26 (ESV)

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? That is the operative question!

Philippians 3:7–8 (ESV)

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

That is the question, dear one. Do you treasure Jesus Christ? Do you treasure the things of God’s Kingdom beyond any earthly thing? Beyond your securities and wealth and possessions? Beyond your career and your goals and your dreams? Beyond your comfort and even friends and family?

That is the picture - the Kingdom is of incredible value - eternal value - inquantifiable value.

It is worth everything. Following Jesus is that hidden investment with unexpected growth. There may be days where it seems like you are taking a loss, but in the end you will consider everything else as loss compare to the glory of God’s Kingdom and the joy that comes with it.

Just think of that picture - the man in his joy sold everything to buy the field. Do we joyfully surrender our treasures for the sake of serving the Lord?

What does forsaking all look like? It may look like forsaking certain plans.

it may look like forsaking certain sins

it may look like forsaking some of your money.

It may look like forsaking friends or family who don’t see the value of the Kingdom.

Think of the merchant and the pearl - he knew his pearls. You might imagine that man to be someone who was maybe a religious seeker. Maybe a religious man or a wise man. He was seeking for treasures of wisdom and religion, but in the Kingdom of god he found the one that surpassed all others.

Paul talks this way in his prayer for believers in Colossians 2.

Colossians 2:2–3 ESV

that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

Dear one, do you see Christ and His Kingdom as this treasure beyond compare?

Here are some questions to help us apply this as we close.

Are we too distracted to take notice of the beauty and value of Christ and His Kingdom?

Do we take the long-view of the Kingdom?

How much does the idea of instant-gratification skew our perspective of value and worth?

How does this creep into our relationships?

How does this effect our focus or work ethic?

What is one thing that we couldn’t imagine giving up for the sake of following Christ? And what does that say about how we need to reevaluate our thinking?

If God’s Kingdom is to be seen as a beautiful treasure and a shelter and safe haven for others to come into, how does that change our thinking about our role in it, and how we represent it?

** Overall, though, be encouraged. Because these parables of Jesus are, in one way, prophecies about the success and the eternal value of God’s Work in the world!

God is working, God is advancing, God is moving, the the Lord is the King who will reign forever. We are privileged to have entered in to a kingdom that far exceeds the beauty and value and richness of any earthly kingdom.

Our King is the wisest and sweetest sovereign in existence. While other Kingdoms spread by force or sword, Christ’s Kingdom spreads and permeates and moves through grace and mercy, love and truth. Nothing can compare, nothing will compare for all eternity.