Kingdom Parables, Part 6
Matthew 13:31-32
We are returning to our study of the parables Jesus tells to describe the Kingdom of God in Matthew 13.
I'm going to read verses 31 through 33 as we begin, and you will see that it is actually two parables. They are best understood together, and I think you will find it helpful to look at them together and see the setting. So we’ll look at the first one tonight and the second one next week.
Beginning then in Matthew chapter 13 with verse 31:
The basic lesson found in these parables is that small things can have large effects. We understand that. All of us can think of very practical things that appear to be nothing important, and yet they wind up having a profound impact.
It might be a little dripping of rain, but the damage that it does over time is huge. It might appear as a small pain initially, but it becomes something large and complex before it oaver.
And once you understand that principle, you are able to understand what these parables are teaching.
Now keep in mind the background of these parables. The disciples are being readied for the absence of Jesus and what the kingdom of God will be like during that time.
That had always anticipated a Kingdom and a Messiah and a blaze of glory.
And what is about to happen is nothing like what they expected. They were looking for a kingdom of glory and power and majesty and world-wide wonder, a kingdom where the unbeliever and the rejecter was immediately devastated and destroyed.
And it didn't happen. And so Jesus teaches them why in Matthew 13 through seven parables which explain to them the kingdom in its mystery form, prior to the millennial blaze of glory that they were anticipating.
The first parable He gives them is about four kinds of soil. Three of them do not receive the message of the King. That tells them that this form of the kingdom will include rejection.
The second parable deals with the rejecters.
He says the wheat and the tares, the kingdom citizens and the rejecters, are going to grow together until the judgment. In the meantime, as wheat, we are to be evangelistic and not be executioners.
Now, what do you think the next question they would ask might be? They're going to think, if the tares outnumber the wheat, then won’t the wheat get crowded out and be strangled? How do we know the life of the kingdom won’t get choked out?
Think about it: They are all there is. They're looking at each other and saying, “We’re it. It's just us. We're the kingdom of God in the world.”
So the Lord gives them two more parables that show that from very small beginnings, the kingdom is going to grow, in spite of its opposition, to ultimately influence the whole world.
Now notice how this unfolds. The first two parables talk about the conflict in the world between good and evil. They talk about the right and the wrong fighting one another.
But the next two talk about the victory of the right. In the end, the little tiny mustard seed fills the earth. The little piece of leaven impacts the whole loaf of bread. What started very small ends up with profound influencing on everything around it.
So let's look at the first parable. Here He talks about the mustard seed and He uses it to describe the external power of the kingdom.
Verse 31
Now once again, we have a farmer, and he's going to plant a crop of mustard. Why mustard? Well, it was used for many things like its oil. That oil was used for many things as well. One of which was medicinal use. It was used also for flavoring. Even today, mustard seed is a valuable commodity.
Verse 32 describes the situation.
Now a little botany lesson is in order. To be honest with you, I’ve never looked into the botany of the parable, and I found it interesting that mustard seeds grow into bushes of shrubs.
Normally it grows to about seven to eight feet in height. That’s a good sized herb. In fact, it can grow to 12 to 15 feet in height. One writer talks about them being higher than a horse and rider.
Another writer says that the horse and the rider can ride under the branches of the mustard bush. Now, that's a big bush.
And what the Lord is saying is there is no real indication of the potential of the plant by looking a the size of the seed.
You have the very smallest seed issuing in the very largest bush that can grow. You can plant a barley seed and you'll get a barley plant that's fairly good size. You can plant a seed of wheat or of corn and you get a fairly good size thing, but you plant this seed and you get a fifteen foot high bush big enough to ride a horse under. That's His point.
So, the parable is not an exaggeration. It is statement commonly understood as are all the parables. Their point is not an exaggeration; their point is that they are commonly understood fact of life.
Now let me take you a little deeper into this situation. Notice what Jesus says in verse 32.
This is “the least of all seeds." The critics who want to attack the Bible pounce on that statement. They say, that proves the Bible is not inerrant because anybody knows than an orchid is smaller than a mustard seed, therefore Jesus either didn’t know what He’s talking about and isn’t God, or He just made something up. And if that’s true, we really have a credibility issue with Jesus and the Bible.
So how do we deal with it? Well we know Jesus wasn’t wrong, and I think we can prove it.
Notice in verse 32 the word herbs. That word refers to garden produce that is grown to be eaten as opposed to wild plants.
So the seed, then, is a seed sown agriculturally to produce edible vegetables and greens.
And of all of the seeds that are sown to produce edible products, the mustard seed was and still is the smallest.
Jesus is exactly right! I like that, don’t you? That when Jesus talks about seeds, He's right? If I can trust Him with seeds, I can trust Him with eternity.
Now if you’ve been paying attention to the parables, you’ve discovered that Jesus chooses his words carefully.
In the first one, we have four kinds of soil, and seed is broadcast and received in various ways. And the seed that takes root and grows is productive.
Then in the second parable, we not only have seed, but we discover in verse 24 that it is good seed that is sown.
And now we find out that the good seed is, in fact, mustard seed, the least of all the seeds. And this seed, when it is received into the good soil and becomes productive, grows into a tree.
verse 32
Not a timber tree, but a shrub so large it has the properties of a tree.
Now, how is this mustard plant like a tree?
"Birds can live in it." Notice they “nest” there. They aren’t just stopping for a visit, this is their home. So this plant is substantial enough to support life. Keep that in mind; we’ll come back to it in a moment.
So now that we understand what the parable says, what does it mean? Well, remember, Jesus is describing the kingdom of God on earth. The first thing he points out is
1. The Kingdom Will Start Small
Can you imagine how this is important to tell the disciple? Here they are standing in a little group that, because they’ve followed Jesus, have been run out of town, oppressed and rejected.
Just a little handful, and Jesus says, “It's okay. That's the plan. Everything starts from something very small, and that is true of the Kingdom of God. In fact, it was so small they couldn't even recognize the kingdom was there.
In Acts chapter 1, they're still saying - Will You at this time restore the kingdom to us? Well, where is it? I mean, it was so small it was virtually unseed, buried in the ground. But it was there!
And in that seed is the potential for a massive bush. And in that little seed planting of the kingdom is the potential for a kingdom that extends to the ends of the earth. It starts very small.
Is that not just like Jesus? I can’t help but think of a manger and stable and smelly animals and manure where a baby was born in obscurity in a country that was nothing but an a dot on the earth under the rule of the Roman Empire.
Or think about Nazareth where Jesus spent thirty years. Little old nuthin’ Nazareth.
And think of the disciples. All of them put together wouldn't add up to a mustard seed. They were so small, so inadequate, so inconsequential, so unqualified, so fearful, so faithless, so weak.
And that was the kingdom that was planted.
The seed was planted. The kingdom will start small. But it didn’t end there.
Here’s the second lesson:
2. The Kingdom will End Large
When Jesus ascended back into heaven, there were just 120 of them gathered there. That’s a crowd not much larger than those of you here tonight.
And so far it's done very well and before it's done it will cover the entire globe.
The prophets saw a great kingdom. If you go through the Old Testament prophets and read about what they looked for in the kingdom, it's...its extent is staggering.
For example, in Psalm 72:8,it says, "He shall have dominion from sea to sea, and the abundance of peace as long as the moon endures. He shall have dominion from sea to sea from the river to the ends of the earth that they dwell in the wilderness shall bow before Him, and His enemies shall lick the dust. The kings of Tarshish and of the islands shall bring presents, the kings of Sheba and Seba shall offer gifts. All kings shall fall down before Him, all nations shall serve Him."
Jeremiah saw it. Amos saw it. Micah saw it. Zechariah saw it. And I could read you Scripture after Scripture after Scripture that the kingdom of Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God would stretch from sea to sea, from land to land, cover the globe. And we know this to be true, don't we? Ultimately the millennial kingdom comes; Jesus reigns over the whole earth. That's coming. In fact, it says in Revelation 11:15, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever."
That’s how big the bush gets. From a very little seed, it grows to a massive bush and that's the thing the Lord wants you to see.
See how Jesus is using these parables to encourage His disciples? Not all seed grows, but some does! The evil one will try to destroy the crop, but he won’t be able to. There is coming a harvest time! You may think you’re small and insignificant, but you’re growing a tree!
So the Kingdom starts small, it ends big, and then notice this:
3. It is so large, birds nest in it.
Now, what do these birds represent? There are all kinds of ideas. Some people think they represent demons. Some people think they represent evil.
That makes some sense because in the earlier parable the birds represent Satan who snatches away the seed.
But truthfully, these birds could represent anything because they're simply an illustration. And I think it’s really pretty simple. There are two main points to the illustration.
First of all, the birds show us that the tree is able to support them. It's so big birds can lodge in it and its Jesus way of telling us how big it is. In that regard, it is comparative. The Kingdom is going to grow, and it will be large enough to support you.
But there's another thought too, that I think is just profound. These birds live in the tree. You know why they live there? I'll tell you why they live there because
The tree is able to provide for them.
There's not only strength to support, there are seeds to eat and they don't have to eat out. And not only that, they build a nest, there's shade, there's protection, security and food there. Everything they need is right there in the tree. That's interesting.
Let me show you an interesting Old Testament commentary on this.
Daniel 4
Now when we get to chapter 4, we discover that Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the greatest of all world Empires, has had a dream. And this is his dream:
verses 10-12
Now what is this? What in the world is he looking at?
Daniel answers that in verses 20-22
What's he saying? He's saying the Babylonian Empire has become like a tree and all of the nations of the world are finding their comfort, their security, their food in that tree. Babylon brought culture to the world, brought education to the world, brought architecture to the world, brought prosperity to the world, brought a sense of peace to the world, there were lots of nations, the birds are the nations, lodging in the tree of the Babylonian Empire.
The same is true in Look at Ezekiel 31 regarding the kingdom of Assyria. There you find Assyria described as a cedar with fair branches, shadowing shroud, high stature, thick boughs at the top, and it was big because the waters had made it great, rivers running around it, little rivers.
It is exalted above all the trees of the field, its boughs multiplied, its branches long because of the multitude of waters. It shot forth. All the fowls of the heaven made their nest in its boughs. And all this is saying is when you have one great massive dominant world power, a whole lot of other little ones get sheltered in the branches.
In fact, I think it fair to use that description of America. It started out small, grew large, and we could say that traditionally and historically, just as was true of Babylon and Assyria and Rome, the United States has been a great tree in which many, many other nations have been sheltered in our branches.
So that’s the secular illustration.
But when you get to Matthew 13, we discover that ultimately the kingdom of God grows so extensive that the nations find their shelter and protection in the kingdom.
Revelation 22:1-2
Listen: As a part of the Kingdom of God, you are a part of a kingdom that is able to support you and provide for you, and not only you, it will grow so large and strong that many will find lodging in its branches.
And what the parable is trying to tell us is that in spite of the opposition, in spite of the three bad soils, in spite of the presence of the tares, we're going to win.
The kingdom is going to grow and grow and grow and grow and grow. That's the promise of the Lord to encourage us. So, we're not this poor little group of people trying to hold the fort. We are living in the branches of the living, growing, abundant Tree of Life.
Let's bow in prayer.
