“The Growth of the Kingdom” Matthew 13:31-35 November 1, 2009

SI: Matthew 13 is a collection of Jesus’ parables known as his kingdom parables.

Jesus told many other parables, but these are grouped together for a particular

reason. They are parables aimed at believers, to help us see more clearly

what it means to live in the kingdom of God.

In these parables Jesus explains what God’s kingdom is, and how you get in,

and how things work in the kingdom, and what the values are,

and what future of the kingdom is.

Jesus called these things the secrets, the mysteries of the kingdom.

He told his disciples that to the degree you understand the kingdom of God,

and make your decisions based upon it, you will be blessed.

Jesus says: Blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear.

The reason you will be blessed is because the kingdom of God is reality.

It’s the way things really are. And as you conform your life and expectations

to God’s reality, you will inevitably be blessed.

Two parables go together. Same message, slightly different emphases.

INTRO: We have a family story that we like to tell about my niece Abigail.

Once when she was about five years old, we were all together

and she tripped and fell down. She got back up and seemed fine.

But then someone said, Abigail, look at your finger.

She must have poked it or scraped it on something because there was

a little spot of blood.

Immediately her face filled with horror and she screamed:

Blood! Blood! Blood! Blood! Blood!

Of course we were very amused at her drama—

because we knew that she had not lost a limb, she was not bleeding to death.

We had a bigger perspective.

And what a blessing perspective is—especially when things are bad.

Being able to see the whole picture gives you calmness and confidence.

Story is told that Baron von Rothschild was once asked:

Baron, when do you buy? When do you invest? When do you buy stock?

His famous answer was: “I buy when blood is flowing in the streets of Paris.”

When most people are hunkering down and hiding money under the mattress—

his big view, his perspective enabled him to see that this was not a time for fear,

but for boldness.

Well, Jesus is doing something great in these two little parables—

he’s giving his people perspective. If you get what he’s saying, and believe it,

then it will encourage you and give you confidence and calmness,

even when things don’t seem to be going like you want them too.

There is no explanation for these parables, so that makes interpretation harder.

And there has been some disagreement by Bible scholars about them.

But their placement between Jesus telling and then explaining the parable

of the wheat and the tares is a clue to what they mean.

Remember the wheat and the tares from last week.

Counterfeit Christians, evil in the world and in the church.

That could be quite discouraging. So Jesus told these parables for perspective.

He wanted the disciples to know that in spite of the presence of evil

in the world—evil growing right alongside of and amongst the people of God—

that his kingdom would continue to grow.

And how will his kingdom grow? Like a mustard seed and like leaven.

The kingdom will grow from small to big like a mustard seed.

This seed becomes a tree and birds come and nest in the tree.

Birds here symbolize all sorts of people who find rest in kingdom of God.

Jesus is saying that the Gospel will advance.

People of every kind—every tribe, every language—will come into it.

And the growth will be like leaven.

How does leaven work? Invisibly, but you see the results, bread rises.

It’s transformed from within.

The kingdom of God, the message of the kingdom, the Gospel,

will works invisibly like yeast in dough,

transforming people and nations into something wonderful.

On clever preacher put it this way: Kingdom of God grows

big from small, transforming all.

Jesus is saying that the big perspective of believers must be positive.

Yes, bad things will come.

New Testament talks about tribulation, and apostasy, and antichrist.

And that is part of the perspective too.

We can’t ignore those things. Kingdom of evil grows too.

But overall, the Lord wants his people to be encouraged.

And especially not to be downhearted by the small beginnings of his kingdom,

and the growth that seems so slow or even invisible—

compared to the very visible and flashy growth of evil.

He wants you to know that to be a Christian, and to be in his kingdom

is to be a part of something that is growing and can’t be stopped.

Let’s look at these parables and try to gain this kingdom perspective.

Do under two headings.

Start with a story, a story about mustard seed and leaven.

Then three applications.

MP#1 Let’s start a story about mustard seed and leaven.

It’s the story of what is happening right now in China.

Andy and Brooke Cheely are our missionaries in China.

We’re not supposed to call them that. They are English teachers.

But when they were here last month, I asked them for a good book to read about the

Chinese church and they told me to read China’s Christian Millions by Tony

Lambert. I’ve got a review on book table.

Tony Lambert is a Scotsman who has lived in and studied China for 40 years.

He works with OMF, Oversees Missionary Fellowship which was founded by

Hudson Taylor in 1865 as China Inland Mission.

In Tony Lambert’s work with OMF, he has traveled the length and breadth of

China, meeting Christians, visiting churches, gathering data. And in a very

methodical way, he describes the growth of Christianity.

I loved this line by Mr. Lambert. It sounds like something a Scotsman would say:

“There is no need to sensationalize or exaggerate—the truth speaks for itself.”

What is that truth? It’s a mustard seed story of amazing proportions.

The growth of the Chinese church is the greatest advance of the kingdom of God,

not just in our time, but the greatest in all church history up to this point.

There is nothing else that can compare to it.

In just 30 years, from the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1978 until today,

the numbers of Christians have grown from practically nothing, so small

that they were invisible—to 60 million and counting. (Very conservative number)

And this is not Christianity lite. These are Christians who have been seasoned

with persecution, who pray, and who preach repentance and faith in Christ.

And they are poised to have an impact on the world.

At the beginning of his book, Tony Lambert focuses on one city in China as

a sort of case study of what is happening all over the country.

It’s the port city of Wenzhou. In 1868 another Scotsman named George Scott

came to Wenzhou with China Inland Mission. He faced a lot of hostility

because China had been forced by Great Britain and other European powers

to open its ports to trade. So foreigners were treated with suspicion

and were sometimes attacked.

George Scott started a small school for boys. He taught the three Rs and Bible.

Eventually some showed spiritual interest and after several years some new

believers were baptized and they started a small church.

The work grew and about ten years later, China Inland Mission built a large

church building in Wenzhou, big enough for several hundred.

The next seven decades were full of political turmoil in China

but all during that time the church grew, and by 1949 there were several thousand

Christians in the city and surrounding towns and villages.

But 1949 was the year of Mao Zedong and the Communists took over China.

For the next 30 years they attempted to destroy Christianity.

Pastors and Christians were arrested and sent to labor in the country.

Every single church in the country was closed down.

Wenzhou was declared an atheistic zone. Special effort was taken there to wipe

away the very thought of God from the minds of the people, especially young.

One American researcher in 1973 said:

“The few Chinese converts were swallowed up by history, leaving scarcely a visible trace.”

But there was a mustard seed in Wenzhou, the leaven of the Gospel was still there.

And after 30 years of intense persecution ended, that little seed began to grow,

and there has been 30 years of explosive growth.

Tony Lambert quotes government statistics of registered evangelical Christians

in Wenzhou. It’s complicated but Christians who want to worship openly in

government approved churches have to register. Number registered 600,000

in a city of 6 million. Doesn’t count the vast number of unregistered.

Maybe twice as many.

2,000 registered churches, 2,000 registered meeting points (prayer chapels),

and too many unregistered churches to count.

If you go out into the county surrounding this city, the percentage of Christians

is even higher. The church is growing so fast there, sending out missionaries

to the rest of the country, that Wenzhou is called the Jerusalem of China,

by Chinese Christians.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Tony Lambert goes on to systematically

describe Christian growth in every province of China as well as among

certain groups of people—like tribal people, students and intellectuals,

and even Communist Party members.

I can’t even begin to give you the whole picture—have to read it for yourself.

But let me tell you one more detail. There is this belief among Chinese Christians

that cuts across denomination lines that is called “The Back to Jerusalem Band.”

This belief began right around the time the Communists took over.

It survived underground all those terrible years, and now Chinese Christians

are talking about it again. The Back to Jerusalem Band is this.

Christianity started in Jerusalem. After Pentecost the Apostles took it west

to Europe. Then from Europe, the Gospel crossed the Atlantic to the Americas.

And then it was Western missionaries who brought the Gospel across the Pacific

to Asia, particularly China. Now what remains for Christianity to circle globe?

It must make its way back to the place it started, Middle East, Holy Land—

and Jerusalem before Jesus returns.

The belief is that this final leg of the journey, this completion of the band

of grace that will circle the globe from Jerusalem to Jerusalem is the

responsibility and honor of the Chinese church.

What will it take to bring Christianity back to the Middle East?

It will take a church stronger than the American church.

We send our kids on mission trips and expect them to come back alive.

It will take a church that has been baptized by persecution and that is willing

to send its sons and daughters to martyrdom.

That is exactly the kind of church that has been growing in China.

It gives you a thrill just thinking about it.

Will it happen that way? Only the Lord knows.

Tony Lambert, ever the practical and non-exaggerating Scotsman says that there

are many weaknesses the Chinese church must overcome before this can happen.

He points out that for all this talk about the Back to Jerusalem Band,

the Chinese Church has had very little success evangelizing the Chinese Muslims

in Northwest China, the Uygur people. Big part of that is that there is not just

a religious difference but an ethnic difference as well.

He says that if the Chinese Church isn’t reaching Muslims in their own country,

how could they do so in the Middle East?

He’s not saying it can’t happen.

Just that it may take a long time for that to happen, just as it has been several

hundred years and some tremendous setbacks for Christianity to come to China.

But that’s ok because we believe what Jesus has taught us about the mustard seed

and the leaven. The kingdom of heaven has been planted, being planted—

and where it is planted it will grow in his time.

How does knowing this help us in the Christian life?

Three applications. Three ways you should be encouraged by these parables.

MP#3 Three applications of the mustard seed and leaven

1. Be encouraged by small beginnings of the kingdom.

Jesus emphasizes the smallness of the mustard seed.

He says it’s the smallest of all seeds.

And he emphasizes the “hiddenness” of the leaven.

A woman making bread in that time would have used a starter from her last

batch of dough. After she kneaded it in, it would have been invisible—

completely mixed in with the new dough.

I think these words are so familiar to us that we miss the significance of them.

Here is Jesus talking about the coming of the Son of God into human history.

The coming of the Messiah to take on sin and death and the devil.

He’s talking about the reign of God in the hearts of people.

And he doesn’t say the kingdom of heaven is like a mighty mountain.

Or the kingdom of heaven is like a roaring flood—

but like a mustard seed and leaven in dough.

That’s amazing and it’s so encouraging.

Because it means that you can look at small beginnings of God’s work in your life,

in the lives of other people, and know this is how it must be. Must start small.

So what if it’s small and weak and easily crushed and even practically invisible.

So what if you aren’t as far along as you had hoped.

This is how Jesus said it was going to be. Be encouraged by the beginning.

And this applies to the things you try to do for God that seem so small.

You talk to someone about your faith—After over, wish had said so much more.

Opportunity to give to something, don’t have as much to give as you wished.

Be encouraged. Jesus said those things mustard seed beginnings of his kingdom.

Talking to a parent in our church once who felt like he was a failure in his

attempts family devotions. They had never done them before. Awkward,

kids didn’t seem to like it. Schedules always interrupting.

I said, be encouraged. Those little times after supper with family are the way

the Lord works. In time there will be growth and dividends in children.

In the book of Zechariah there is a lovely verse that says it so well:

“Who has despised the day of small things?”

It was in the times when Israel rebuilding after captivity. Efforts to be the people

God wanted them to be so small. So easy to be discouraged. But Zechariah

goes on to say that one day the people would rejoice at what they see God do.

2. Be encouraged by gradual growth of the kingdom.

That’s the other thing Jesus emphasizes in this parable.

He says about the mustard seed

“When it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree.”

There is the process of growth. It’s not a tree right away, it becomes a tree.

And he makes the same point about the leaven.

“A woman took and hid (it) in three measures of flour till it was all leavened.”

The yeast does not instantly make the dough rise, it takes time to work through.

This must have been very troubling to the disciples.

They still thought that the Messiah would restore the political throne of David.

And they believed that Jesus would do it quickly.

They got quite excited when the crowds wanted to make him king.

And knowing, as they did the Messianic fever that the Jews in their day had,

and their eagerness to throw off the oppression of Rome, they knew that all Jesus

had to do was say the word, and he would have a following of thousands.

But Jesus said: First, the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.

And then he said it’s going to grow like a seed and spread influence like yeast.

Gradually, organically becoming what it is meant to be in people and the world.

It’s easy to become impatient and even discouraged by gradual growth.

But Jesus says, Don’t be. Instead, be encouraged. This is how it works.

The year we moved to Florida after seminary, met a couple our age.

He had grown up in a nominal Christian home, had an experience with Jesus as

child, but had wandered for years. She grew up a pagan—her teenage years

and early 20s were characterized by drunkenness, promiscuity, and abortions.

She got pregnant, they got married, and the Holy Spirit started moving in his life.

He remembered childhood. He started going to church,

she went with him, both made professions of faith.

It was at that point in their lives we met them. Became friends.

Their faith and their marriage and everything good like a mustard seed.

It was so tiny, so fragile, we often wondered often if they would make it.

He was suffering consequences of rebellion,

she was tormented by old attitudes and her guilt. But they grew.

Since moving to Cullman we talk to them very infrequently, every few years.

And guess what? They’ve grown.

They have a godly home, children walking with the Lord.

Day to day it’s hard to see growth, but over the years you see it.

We can talk about what has happened in China, and it seems so quick—

but you realize that the story I told you started in the 1800s,

and the real growth began 30 years ago.

And the China story won’t be over till after all of us are dead

and we can watch the developments from heaven.

Be encouraged by gradual growth—in yourself, in your children, in people

you are praying for, in your church and kingdom of God in the world.

We want things fast. We want quick changes.

But that’s not usually how Jesus works.

3. Be encouraged by promised maturity of the kingdom.

That’s the last thing Jesus emphasizes, the maturity of the kingdom of heaven.

The mustard seed becomes a tree.

Such a big tree that birds of all kinds nest in its branches.

And the leaven works through the dough so that there comes a time

when it can rise no more—it is ready for baking.

One day the kingdom of heaven will be mature too.

Jesus says later in Matthew:

“This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world

as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”

There is a day when the Gospel will have been preached to all nations—

all people groups, and birds of every kind, people of all sorts will

come to nest in the branches of the kingdom.

And when that happens, Jesus will return.

That’s one reason we support missionaries.

We are hastening the day of Christ’s coming by cooperating with

and doing what we can to grow the kingdom of God to maturity.

And not only is this true in the big sense—

it’s true of the kingdom of heaven within you.

The Lord has a goal for you—and that goal is maturity.

He wants you to be that tree that is a blessing to other people.

He wants you to be that dough, risen and ready for baking.

There is a sense in which Christians are always growing and will be till we die.

But in another sense, we grow into maturity.

In John’s first letter he addresses three classes of Christians—

little children, young men, fathers—he talking about stages of Christian life.

Fathers have a calm knowledge of God.

Christians who have come to a place where nothing can shake them.

Writer of Hebrews tells us to leave elementary teachings behind

and to move on to maturity.

Are there things in your life that trouble you?

Weaknesses, besetting sins, old habits and attitudes?

Listen to Jesus’ parables and take them to heart.

Jesus is saying that everywhere the kingdom of heaven is present,

it’s not just growing, it will one day be mature.

That’s what God has promised,

as long as you cooperate with the Holy Spirit and his sanctification.

We had a wedding here yesterday. Anna Bagley got married.

If you know Anna. If you’ve watched her grow up in our church,

you know what a mature young woman she has become.

There are sometimes weddings where you can’t help worrying about the couple,

worrying about their immaturity and if they are ready for marriage.

I especially worry about those things when I am marrying people.

But when you know the bride and groom are mature—

not just in their character but in their Christian faith,

and you know they are ready for this step—there is a confidence that brings joy.

Jesus has given us these two lovely parables to encourage you.

Yes, there is evil all around, evil pressing against the cause of Christ,

evil in high places. And even evil in your own heart.

But the destiny he has for his kingdom is not regression—

but from tiny beginnings, growth to maturity in Christ.

So this week, if you get discouraged about where things are with the kingdom of God in the world, or in your children and the people you love, or in your own heart,

remember the mustard seed, remember the leaven,

put yourself at Jesus’ feet and listen to his parables—

and be encouraged.