Series: Stories of the King Sermon Title: Don’t miss what matters Passage: Matthew 13:31-32 Preacher: Dan Weyerhaeuser Date: 8.27.17 Sometimes we miss big things that matter because they are small in appearance. Let me illustrate.
You might not think I could carry something of much size in this bag, but you’d be wrong. But actually from this small bag I can pull an 8’ wooden staff. (Moses would have liked a staff he could store in a small place rather than carry it all the time).
It’s amazing when we see something big emerge from something small in real life too.
Kate Balasa has a friend who was invited in the early 1980’s to make an initial investment of $10,000 in a small, startup tech company. The guy behind it was looking for 100 investors. Her friend decided not to take the risk. A few years ago, that same guy took those 100 investors to Hawaii to thank them. The man’s name is Bill Gates, and the company was Microsoft. They are all gazillionaires today. Small start, big finish.
There has never been a more dramatic example of a s omething huge emerging from small beginnings than the coming of the Kingdom of God on earth. Jesus wants us to know that the Kingdom of God WILL fill the whole earth and that the will of God WILL be done one day on every square inch of earth as it is in heaven, even though in His day things seemed small in size. In Matthew 4 our author tells us… Matthew 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Jesus announced to crowd after crowd in villages and cities and in the countryside from Galilee to Jerusalem for 3 years that “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” It is here now. It is in reach. Repent and believe and you can become a CITIZEN of God’s Kingdom. TODAY Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven will keep coming until it has filled the whole earth! Main point: The Kingdom of Heaven will fill the whole earth. Know this… believe this… live in light of this! We live differently when we genuinely believe God’s Kingdom is coming. If you are here trying to figure out if Christ is who you are looking for, if things have happened lately and you know you need a change but are not sure what, we are honored that you are here. He IS who you are looking for! What we’ll see in two short verses is a picture of h ow Jesus comes into our lives and this world, what His coming is like, and why He is good. Tell Him, “Jesus, I want you to help me in this message” and He will. We are finishing our series on the parables of Jesus (which describe in short stories truths about the Kingdom of Heaven) back in the 13th chapter of Matthew’s gospel. A quick reminder…1) W hat is “the Kingdom of Heaven?” A kingdom is a territory under the rule of a king. If you cross the Rio Grande into Mexico, you are in a new nation. The streets look different, the cars are different, the language is different, the police are different, and most importantly the government is different. You are under the rule of a different “king.” The Kingdom of Heaven is the place where the will of King Jesus is gladly obeyed by those who trust Him. As His Kingdom comes, He restores what is broken! The Kingdom of God is nothing less than the power of God in heaven entering the world to heal every alienation and every brokenness in every dimension of human life, whether is it social or economic or racial or emotional or physical or psychological, or spiritual. T im Keller
2) When is the Kingdom of heaven? In the future when Christ returns, His Kingdom will be here in full. In the meantime, it IS here in part. Each time someone becomes a Christian, and each time a Christian conforms to the will of Christ with the help of God’s Spirit, the Kingdom comes. And it is GOOD! “Mercy Me” sings a song called, “Heaven Is Here”… Hallelujah, sing like the angels do, We don't have to wait 'til this life is through No separation, He has raised us up, We don't have to wait, heaven's here with us I say, we don't have to wait, heaven's here with us
2 We get moments in this life when God shows up and we experience His love and gifts and truth through His people and in those moments, heaven IS here with us. Today we learn that this coming Kingdom of Heaven… 1) is an irritant, 2) it grows organically, 3) it has a small start but big finish, and 4) it attracts all peoples. Read The Kingdom of Heaven… 1. …is an irritant… it is is confront-ive I say this because of what the Kingdom of Heaven is compared to.
Matthew 13:31b The Kingdom of heaven is like the grain of a mustard seed
Who likes mustard? Mustard has a disturbing quality to it. It is an irritant. It bites the tongue. You might pour caramel or sprinkles on your ice cream, but you would not pour mustard over your French Vanilla ice-cream. It is not a dessert-condiment. It evokes a reaction.
It is from this word that the military gets the word “muster.” When the bugle sounds “muster,” you don’t hit snooze on your clock for an extra 10 minutes. When “muster” sounds, it's like you’ve been bitten. You jump out of bed and get to attention now!
The Kingdom of heaven is like mustard. It has a bite to it. When the King comes into our lives, He starts bringing changes. He LOVES us and heals us! But He immediately begins to change things in your life. Jesus shares 3 chapters of examples in Matthew 5-7. In our world, if you get hurt, you get even. But if you are a citizen of God’s Kingdom and you get hurt, He leads you to forgive…and PRAY for your enemy (5:43-48)! I n our world you constantly think about how we can get and keep as much as possible. But people of the Kingdom, He leads us to constantly think about how much we can give with radical generosity (6:19-24). I n our world, sensuality is flaunted and used to sell everything from cars to clothes. But when the people in the Kingdom follow Him, we prize modesty and dignity and think the value of a person is not how they look on the outside but that they are made by God on the inside (5:27-30). I n our world, people’s days are dominated by anxiety and fear because we are trying to control circumstances that are greater than us. But citizens of the Kingdom, God’s people, are characterized by peace and joy on every day because we KNOW our God KNOWS what we need and we believe He will provide as He promised. God’s Kingdom acts upon us (6:25-34)! Truth – none of us live there all the time, but we COULD. We have access to a very different life. Q : How can we live so differently? A: You can forgive others when God has forgiven you at the cost of His Son while you were HIS enemy. You want be generous when you recall that God has given US every blessing He has in Christ. We can prize modestly because we have found a better joy than public arousal that leaves you feeling cheap. His Spirit indwells us, bringing His Kingdom, and from the inside out we begin to become more whole! POINT: The Kingdom of Heaven is an irritant to our former way of life. He is gentle and we find rest for our souls with Him in charge. But His commands guide us back to the life you were designed to live, because you were designed for good… we were designed to be like HIM. His Spirit enables us to choose to obey Him. The Kingdom of heaven… 2. … grows organically (by seeds planted) When a human kingdom invades, they come violent, abruptly, and traumatically. Think of Germany invading Poland or France and you see how our kingdoms advance. When human kingdoms come, we impose our will upon a weaker nation and its territory becomes ours. But the Kingdom of Heaven comes with far greater force than that of human might… yet gently. God Himself is moving into the world and there is no stopping HIM. YET, He is gentle and humble of heart, and his kingdom comes organically, like a seed that grows in the ground. “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.
The Kingdom of Heaven grows like a seed. One word we would never use to describe a farmer’s growing crop… is violent. A seed enters the soil, and water activates it, and it begins, little by little, to change, to draw nutrients from the soil and reform them into a plant. The seed grows silently, imperceptibly, out of sight. This is how the Kingdom comes.
3 I’ve told you many times about the first night I read the Bible when I had such a profound encounter with Christ. Since then, I’ve talked to my other 3 friends who were in the room at the time… none of them had any idea this was happening in me. It was almost a non-event for them. This is a picture of our window in Boaz Hall, 3rd floor that looks just like every other window. But in that place one night in 1981, the Kingdom of God entered MY heart and I became alive to God and to life and to people in a way I had never known before!
The Kingdom of heaven grows like a seed in the ground. Question… what is the seed Jesus is talking about? Two answers. 1) In v. 1 the seed is the “gospel.” By “Gospel, the Bible means “the good news that Christ died for our sins, according to the scriptures, that he was buried and on the third day rose to be God’s King over creation.” The seed is the Word of God… and all that it tells us about God. When a person really reads closely and listens to God’s Word, they learn from it and believe it, something begins to happen inside of them. They love things they have never loved before… they feel uncomfortable with things they used to do that seemed ok. God’s Spirit works through God’s Word. Anyone ever experience that before? 2) However the seed here might also be US. After our parable, the disciples ask Jesus “what was the seed” in the parable of the wheat and tares (the second parable in this chapter)? His answer there (13:38) is that the seeds are the sons of God. God has planted in the world a seed through which He brings His Kingdom and that seed is His followers. WE effect our surroundings. The grain of mustard seed might well be God’s people who have been changed by God’s Word… we have a remarkable effect in our world! He is doing this now! 2 roses are for my two neighbors who just moved away. Kyle and Enjoli moved in a few years ago. I’ve prayed daily for them and they came to our BBQ last year. We’ve had conversations in the neighborhood (not long ones). But it seemed like there was gratitude and warmth… we were getting someplace. But then in about a month’s time, they moved. I trust that our prayers were not a waste, but I was really sad for them to leave. But then another neighbor, who is a Christian, stopped by. They’d gotten locked out of their house and asked to use our phone and wait for their son came home to let them in. While we visited, I shared that we’d been praying for Kyle and Enjoli and was sad that they’d left. He said, “Their last week, I led them both to Christ.” I shared with them about Jesus (our neighbor gets right to that) and they accepted the Lord.
God has been at work on my neighbors hearts, drawing them to Himself, in ways I was unaware. His Kingdom was coming like a seed! Clearly they had come to a place where they were open to change and my Christian friend helped them became my brother and sister in Christ! The Kingdom grows organically. The Kingdom of heaven… 3. …has a small start but big finish Perhaps this is Jesus’ strongest point here…
Matt. 13:31 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. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants… Mustard seeds are small. Does anyone see the seed I have in my hand? I know you don’t, because I don’t have one in my hand. But if I did, you couldn’t see it ☺.
Mustard seeds are very small. Yet, when they are planted and grow, they become like a tree about 10’ tall. How THIS tree grows from THIS seed is remarkable.
I had about 30-40 minutes of Bible reading one night in college, and something got unleashed in me that changed me forever! A small moment in God’s Word and the entire direction of my life was changed by Him! If you have ever been encouraged by Christ through ME, that all started with a small moment when someone challenged me to read the Bible. 35 years later, I’ve been in on telling a LOT of people about Christ, and I believe my best days are in front of me. The same is true for YOU! How did God begin to work on your life? Did a host of angels appear and shake the earth, or God’s fire fall on Mt. Everest while you were there? Or did something just begin to happen in your heart? Did you hear a sermon or someone tell you about how Christ had changed their lives? Did you open the Bible and start to read and something small but unmistakable happened in YOUR life? And how many lives have been touched by you since?
Why is this important to know? Here stands Jesus with his 12 disciples. Compared to the religion of the Greeks or the Romans who had temples all over the world, or even compared to Judaism as it was practiced
4 in its day, the Christian faith was like a mustard seed. It was small. But as a mustard tree (which is actually VERY impressive) grows out of this small seed, so too the Kingdom of God will grow mightily through a few people and a simple message, to the point that in the “garden” of the world, it will be by far the largest tree! That’s because Jesus said, “I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.” POINT: We WIN!!!!!!! Ancient History – The church flourished in the first centuries after Christ! By AD 100, the church had 100,000 members. By AD 200, it had grown to 1.5 million. And by AD 300, it was 6 million. In an empire of 60 million, that’s 1 in 10… (In a hostile world where not swearing ultimate allegiance to Caesar was to risk your life, this growth is amazing!) PEW research tells us today that there are nearly 2 billion Christians in the world. It is hard to believe that when we look around in America. But in sub-Saharan Africa (from the Sahara to the southern tip of the continent), there are more Christians concentrated than any other place on the planet, and the church has been growing in new believers at about 35% a year for years! Today in Nepal and China, the church is growing about 10% a year through new believers. Indonesia and Brazil are two other places where the church is gaining ground. In all the places I’ve mentioned, Christianity dwarfs the church in America and Europe. (Patheos.com)
All this is happening because Jesus brought God’s Kingdom through 12 followers 2000 years ago… and it continues to spread! PA… this helps us be confident today that Jesus IS building His church. May He do so here! But He IS. ALSO, this helps us realize that small moments we have with people that seem insignificant, really CAN be the beginning of something ENORMOUS in them as well! Taking a minute to remember to pray for someone you know, putting down what you are doing when you see them to give them your attention, inviting them to a meal, caring about their life and sharing your own (living a Pray – Eat – Love lifestyle) and small moments can be the beginning of HUGE change! The Kingdom of heaven… 4. …attracts all peoples There is a last line in this parable that is fascinating…
….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.”
In the Bible, King’s and their Kingdoms are described as a growing tree in several places. This is true of Pharaoh in Egypt, or Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar, who had become a follower of God, wrote a letter to the entire world in which he shared a vision he had received that his kingdom was like a vast tree, the branches of which spread out into all the earth. Dan. 4:12 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.
The beasts of the field and the birds of heaven that lived in its branches and all flesh that fed from it… were a picture of the people of the nations all over the world who were in Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom. In JESUS’ parable, the Kingdom of Heaven becomes the largest tree in the garden…it will fill the universe's. And people from all nations will find shelter and home in it because He reaches all nations.
TRUTH: Christianity is the faith of God for ALL people! It is NOT the invention of the west. When we go to India, we encounter Indian nationals who resent western religion coming to India. Our reply is that long before Christianity made it to America, Thomas the apostle of Christ, brought it to India, where he was a missionary and martyr. HE is the One Who ALL peoples need.
Kyle and Enjoli were both of a different ethnic background than me… it didn’t matter. Because more than white or black or brown, we are all humans, made in God’s image, who all need the God Who is and Who has redeemed us in Christ! We all need Him and His forgiveness and love! So we close this series on the Parables which describe God’s Kingdom with this statement by Jesus that it WILL fill the whole earth! It is an irritant, it comes organically, it starts small but ends big, and it invites all peoples. Response:
5 1) Be confident. Trust that Jesus will do what He said He will do! When you know you are a part of God’s plan, you can live with a humble fearlessness and love because you trust Him. In the face of the threat of Assyria, this was the leadership to the people the Lord provided through Hezekiah
2Chr. 32:7 "Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. 8 With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles." And the people gained confidence from what Hezekiah the king of Judah said.
And indeed God did deliver them. But before He did, the people took confidence in Him. What would it look like if you were CONFIDENT that the Kingdom were coming, that the circumstances you are living right now are temporary and not to last? 2) Help people enter the Kingdom. God’s great Kingdom enters people’s lives like a seed. Don’t underestimate the importance of one prayer, or one act of kindness, or one invitation. It is a small thing to invite someone to a place where they will hear about Christ, but it may be the beginning of a huge work of God in their lives. One way we help people enter the kingdom of heaven as a whole church is Alpha. Alpha is a 10 week course for people investigating Christianity where they can learn the basic message of the Bible. It is a safe place to listen and talk and explore questions and issues you have along with other people as they settle the question of their faith. Lakeland family, people GET to Alpha usually because someone who knows them invites them. Let’s watch this video from Alpha, and then I’m going to ask Sarah Love to tell us a little bit more.
3) Come back to church next week: We begin a new series, which is a study of Paul’s 2nd letter to the church in Corinth. This book is all about how God has reconciled us to Himself, and therefore reconciled us to each other. How do we live that out is a big topic of this book. And He has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. We will fire up the pulpit-cam and work on how to study a book of the Bible. It will be great! My friend, the kingdom of heaven is at hand today. Believe it!
___________________________________ Side note…Mustard seeds are NOT the smallest of all seeds in the world. This has been pointed out by many skeptics over the years. Their argument is that since there were smaller seeds but Jesus got this wrong, the Bible must be untrustworthy and Christianity crumbles. REALLY? That sounds like the words of someone looking for a reason not to believe. TRUTH: Mustard seeds ARE small, so much so that their small size is proverbial. But it would be foolish to miss the obvious point… Don’t underestimate the potency of the Kingdom of God because while it begins small, it has a big finish! ____________________________________
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Small Group Leader Notes August 27, 2017
From Pastor Dan… Hello Small Group Leaders and anyone else using these notes, We bring our series on Jesus’ parables to a close this week. These stories visualize truths about God, His salvation, our response to Him, and show us who Christ is. They are very powerful when we take them into our hearts. FYI, next week, we begin our series that will take us to Easter. “Reconciled” is our name for our study of Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth. This book depicts God’s reconciling us of Himself, and therefore to each other. And God has made us ambassadors of reconciliation to the world. These will be great days together. I remain grateful for you every time I write. Thank you for your prayer and service to people Jesus loves dearly! Warmly, Dan Our Scripture Study… Series: Message #: Sermon Title: Passage: Preacher: Date:
Stories of the King 11 Don’t miss what matters Matthew 13:31-32 Dan Weyerhaeuser 2017-8-27
SMALL GROUP QUESTIONS Getting to know each other: Do you like mustard? Why? Why not? What is your favorite condiment? Personal Study: As you study (read, reread, consider, ponder, reread) the passage, list observations you make. What is the main point of this passage? How is the theme developed? What “Aha’s” come to you as you read? What questions come to mind? How do you respond to the God seen in these verses? Bring your observations and questions to your Small Group this week!
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Matthew 13:31-32
1. Several times this summer we’ve talked about “the Kingdom of Heaven” (or in other gospels, “The Kingdom of God.”) Can we remember together what Jesus meant by this? What is it? When does it come? The kingdom of God, like any kingdom, is that place ruled by a king. The Kingdom of God has come when the will of God is done on earth as it is in heaven. Entering the kingdom of God is one way the Bible talks about becoming a Christian. Today the kingdom is here in part. People who have become Christians have become citizens of the Kingdom, with King Jesus leading their lives by faith. We don’t do this perfectly, but we do trust Him and obey His commands. Jesus said, “the kingdom of heaven is in hand.” But one day the kingdom will be
7 here in full, when “every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
2. Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven as like a mustard tree. What is true about mustard? How might this be analogous to the Kingdom of Heaven? Mustard has a bite. It is not sweet, it is pungent it is disturbing. We mix it with vinegar and lemon juice. We don’t put it on our desert. The kingdom of heaven is disturbing when it comes to people it bites us. It confronts us. It disturbs us. It declares we can’t be the same as we used to be. There might be things we used to do that we didn’t care about which now have become things that trouble us. This is a sign that God is at work in our lives! 3. In Jesus’ first sermon in Matthew (C. 5-7, which we call the “Sermon on the Mount”) Jesus shows how “citizens” of the Kingdom live differently that citizens of our world. Leaf through these chapters and identify several ways Christians can live differently. (POINT: Each of these are ways God’s Kingdom have “confronted” our old way of living.) In this world when you get hurt, you get even but when you are in the kingdom and you get hurt, you forgive and pray for your enemy. In this world, you try to get as much as you can. But when you are in the kingdom, you want to give as much as you can. Citizens of the kingdom of God want to become like him, and that’s different from our world. Etc. 4. What enables Christians to live that way? We have been loved by God when we were his enemy’s. While we still hated him, Jesus died for us so that we could be forgiven. When we believed in Christ, His Spirit entered us and “made us alive together with Christ.” Something came to life in us… which is God. And we realize and love that God wants us to be his children. When you are loved like that, and made new in your heart by God’s spirit, you can live differently. 5. In our parable, how does the Kingdom of Heaven grow? The Kingdom of Heaven comes like a see grows…. Organically, gently, a little at a time. This is in contrast to the way that human kingdoms come into new lands, violently, through subjugation, by might. 6. What are the “seeds” Jesus refers to? (See 13:19 AND 13:38) Discuss which of these Jesus might mean. v. 1-23 Jesus first parable is about the sower and the seed. There the seed is the word of God. V. 24-30, in Jesus second parable about the wheat and the tares, the seed in the ground are the sons of God. The seed is Christians. I think in our parable the seed of God sows in the world is us who have been changed by Gods word. You are God’s seed in the world through whom he brings his kingdom. 7. Can you see a seed growing? How do you know it did grow? How might this help us understand God’s Kingdom? No. seeds grow underground and out of sight. A seed will grow for some time before the plant breaks into the open. In the same way, Gods kingdom begins to grow in our hearts. At first, its out of sight. We begin to see things differently, and care about new things. Eventually, this change becomes visible in our words and actions. And that is how Gods kingdom grows in us, from the inside out. 8. If the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard “seed – become – a – tree”, what point might Jesus be making? As Jesus speaks this parable it is only him and twelve disciples who make up the kingdom of God on earth. It’s a pretty small group compared to Greek or roman religions. There were temples to pagan gods all over the world. Even the Jewish religion was much bigger than the Christians. One might think Christ’s followers are small. But like a mustard seed, which becomes the biggest tree in the garden, so the church will grow up and fill the
8 whole earth. Today, no one worships the gods of the Greeks or the Romans. But Christianity is the largest religion in the world. We can be confident that Gods kingdom will come and fill the earth, even when it seems week. We win! 9. Why might this be helpful to Jesus’ followers to hear? 10. Read Ezekiel 17:22-24; 31:6; and Daniel 4:12. What had been “prophesied” in the Old Testament about God’s Kingdom? Since Abraham, God had planned to reach all nations threw his people ( Genesis 12:1-3). One way this was described was like our parable. The birds of the air are like the peoples of the nations. Threw the church many will enter the kingdom.
11. How could we summarize the message of this parable? Group discussion question. 12. How do we join in with what Jesus is doing in growing His Kingdom here? We heard about alpha beginning in several weeks. Is there anyone you might pray for and invite to alpha? Share the story. Are there any other ways we can respond to this parable?
