Fridays with Pastor Jim Bachmann: "Do you feel insignificant?"

We continue our study of the parables, Matthew 13 verses 31 through 33, considering actually two parables this morning, both very brief, both very encouraging, and both testifying to the amazing Kingdom of God. Perhaps you sometimes find yourself worrying about the state of the world or the state of our country or our culture, the moral decline. Perhaps you are anxious at times about the decline that we see, the moral decline all around us. And perhaps you wonder about the effectiveness of the church or the lack thereof and feel like you're very much in a minority. Sometimes I think we feel like the church is losing the battle, and even God himself is losing. Well, if you have those thoughts, as I suppose we all do at times, take heart and allow the Lord to speak to you this morning and be encouraged by what we learn from these two very brief but very powerful parables.

Lord, thank you for your Word. We rejoice in the opportunity we have to have the Scriptures in our hands, to read your Word day after day, to hide your Word in our hearts so that we will not sin against you. And we rejoice that we've never suffered a famine of the Word of God, and may that never happen to our church or to our country. May we be good stewards of the Scripture, and may we be diligent to study and to memorize and to share and to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior. May your Spirit teach us this morning. May your Spirit be our preacher and open our hearts, open our ears and minds that we may be encouraged in the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.

Amen. Matthew 13, beginning in verse 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.

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. 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. Amen. All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, and the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

Amen. Many of you have seen the television series known as Downton Abbey, a British historical drama featuring a very aristocratic family and their domestic servants. It is set in the years 1912 to 1926, a time of great change, a time of many new inventions from old hair dryers to telephones to motors. You know motors now as cars, as we call them. Many of these inventions were met with great skepticism.

Many of them were viewed as highly unnecessary, inconvenient, and not likely to have much of an impact. Those of you that watch the series may remember when an electric mixer showed up in the kitchen, and Mrs. Patmore, the head cook in the kitchen, wondered what that contraption was for. And young Daisy said, well, Mrs. Patmore, it beats eggs and whips cream and all sort, to which the older Mrs. Patmore replied, but you and I can do that, Daisy. And then there was the day the refrigerator arrived, and again, Mrs. Patmore found it very unnecessary and protested and thought the icebox would suffice. It had done well for many years and would do so for many more, she thought. And finally, these protestations were just too much, and Lady Grantham confronted her and asked the question, is there any aspect of the present day that you can accept without resistance?

And Mrs. Patmore, quite the colorful character, whose profile could best be described as very short and very round, replied by saying, oh, my lady, I wouldn't mind getting rid of my corset. The point being that most of these inventions were met with some degree of distrust, if not disgust, and seemed to have no lasting value. I wish to speak to you this morning about another invention, although that's not quite the appropriate word. I refer to the kingdom of God. One of the first things John the Baptist said in the Bible was, repent, for the kingdom of God, or the kingdom of heaven, is at hand.

That is to say, something new, something radically different was at hand. Jesus said the same thing, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. And a bit later in his ministry, he said, if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then know that the kingdom of God has come upon you.

So something big had happened with the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that's what these two parables are about. And the first thing we learn here is that the kingdom of God has a very small beginning. Verses 31-32, the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed. Verse 32, it is the smallest of all seeds. Indeed it is, about one to two millimeters in diameter.

People like me that need these things probably wouldn't even be able to see a mustard seed without some assistance. It was the standard of smallness, in fact. In Jesus' day, when someone wanted to make the point that something was teeny tiny and extremely small, they would say that it was as small as a mustard seed. That was a very common figure of speech.

And Jesus is saying, that's what the kingdom of God is like. A mustard seed, nearly invisible, teeny tiny. And note, he says it's like a mustard seed.

It's not like a fifty pound bag of seeds, it's one seed, one single solitary little teeny tiny unimpressive seed. Which begs the question, what good will that do? How much impact will this new invention have? Will it be around for long?

Will it have any usefulness whatsoever? How much good can come from one little baby born in one little manger in the little town of Bethlehem? How much good can come from one carpenter son who was raised in Nazareth?

Nathaniel didn't think anything good could come out of Nazareth, did he? No, our society, then and now, tends to be impressed with bigness, with largeness, with things that speak of power. Be it a powerful army with great weapons, or even a big football stadium that can seat a hundred thousand people. Or even a big concert with great numbers of young people as far as the eye can see. When I was a teenager I went to municipal auditorium and I watched, heard Three Dog Night and had a great time and Elton John and had a great time and others. And there may have been ten thousand people there and I thought that was cool. But nowadays you have Garth Brooks singing in Central Park as he did in the nineteen nineties in front of seven hundred and fifty thousand people. Now that's impressive, that gets attention, makes news.

Or the Rolling Stones back in 2006 performing before one million five hundred thousand people in Rio de Janeiro. That is impressive, but a seed? One seed?

One mustard seed? What on earth? The kingdom of God is like that? Is there any hope for it? Any reason for optimism about this kind of kingdom?

Oh, maybe there's a solution. Maybe if the one who sows the seed is rich and famous and impressive and influential, that will give it credibility and that will jump start the kingdom and it will never look back. Who is the sower?

Let's see what the answer is here. The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man, a man, did you hear that? A man, just a man, nothing impressive, a nameless, faceless, underwhelming man. A nobody. I don't know about you, but I would say this kingdom needs a somebody. If this kingdom is going to go anywhere, if this kingdom is going to make a difference, it needs a somebody, not a nobody.

That's the way I think, that may be the way you think, that is not the way God thinks. God loves to use nobodies, like nobody fishermen, Peter and John, like nobody tax collectors, Levi, nobody disciples, uneducated men that changed the world. You know who wrote the melody for Amazing Grace? I didn't know this, you may be way ahead of me, but this week I learned who wrote the melody for Amazing Grace. Actually I didn't learn it and you haven't either because we don't know who wrote the melody. You can go to the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. and check it out and check out any authentic manuscript of that hymn and it will say at the bottom or somewhere words by John Newton, melody unknown.

Probably it was a common West African slave tune written by some unknown slave on the five black notes on the piano like so many of the famous spirituals we still hear today, Swing Low Sweet Chariot and Every Time I Feel the Spirit and others, just those five notes and they built the power and the pathos of the wonderful spirituals on those five notes, but we don't know who did it and may never know until we get to heaven, just a slave, just a nobody. God loves to use nobodies, a man with a little teeny tiny single solitary seed, that's what the kingdom of God is like. I would have to say this just does not look promising at all, humanly speaking. But I did say that these parables were encouraging, did I not? And indeed they are, because secondly we see that this little seed, dearly invisible, has secret power. Verse 32, it is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants. This seed grows, it grows silently most of the time, it grows invisibly most of the time, it grows steadily because it has this secret power that never makes headlines, there's never any breaking news that there's one new soul that's been added to the kingdom of God.

Most of the time it's one person at a time. There may be some occasions in history where there's some mass evangelism or mass revival or a family gets saved or something of that sort, but most of the time it's one single person at a time, quietly, silently, invisibly, steadily, the kingdom grows. In 1857, Queen Victoria called for a solemn assembly, a national prayer, a time of worship and humiliation in London because of the Indian mutiny against Great Britain and Charles Spurgeon was asked to speak and he went to the Crystal Palace a day or two before the event and he walked around looking for the place he might want his pulpit to be and they were expecting the largest crowd in the history of London, nearly 24,000 people were expected. And Mr. Spurgeon found the spot he wanted the pulpit to be and he stood there and he shouted the words Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And it sounded good and he was satisfied and he left and that was all he said.

And the next day he came back and a workman in the building sought him and found him and told him he'd been working in the building the day before when Mr. Spurgeon shouted those words and his heart was pricked by those words and he went home and he wrestled with God and was eventually converted that night and gave his life to Jesus Christ. There is secret power in this little seed. One would never guess it. One would look at the seed and say it's insignificant.

One would look at it and say it's impotent. It's foolishness. It's like the foolishness of a Sunday morning sermon.

It's like the foolishness of preaching the cross, the stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles. But the fact of the matter is the seed is not vulnerable. The seed is indestructible.

The seed is invincible. There's a secret power in it and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it and the people who plot can't prevail against it and the nations who rage can't prevail against it and a virus can't prevail against it. Persecution can't prevail against it because it has unbelievable dynamite, the dynamite of God, Paul says in Romans, secret power. After John Wycliffe was dead and buried, his enemies exhumed his bones. They hated him so much. They exhumed his body from the grave and they burned his bones and they scattered those ashes in the river Swift, thereby symbolically at least attempting to silence him once and for all.

But the historian said it had just the opposite effect because there's secret power in the seed and it was as though Wycliffe's ministry, Wycliffe's impact expanded throughout all of Europe via the rivers and the tributaries and he became the Morning Star of the Reformation. There's a similar story with John Bunyan thrown into prison by the magistrate of Bedford and when he threw him into prison, the magistrate said, at last we are done with this tinker and his cause. Nevermore will he plague us for his name locked away as securely as he shall be forgotten. Done we are and all eternity with him. Well, not so fast, Mr. Magistrate. We are not done with Mr. Bunyan.

I'm quoting him this morning as a matter of fact. We're still reading the Pilgrim's Progress 340 some odd years later because there's secret power in the seed and the kingdom grows and the gates of hell can't stop it. This will be a significant, even substantial kingdom, verses 32 and 33. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it is 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. He told them another parable, the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hidden three measures of flour till it was all leavened. Three measures of flour is a lot of flour, but a little bit of leaven goes a very long way and this little mustard seed becomes a very large tree and a place of safety and refuge for the birds of the air. Point being, the kingdom will grow and grow until it is significant and substantial.

I might even use the word gigantic. Oh, you say, doesn't the Bible indicate that there won't be many people in heaven? The road is long and narrow and few there be that find it. Yes, it does say that and there were few in Jesus' day, few of his own people. He came to his own. They received him not. The religious leaders of his day didn't receive him, but the Bible also says there will be a multitude no man can number from every nation, tribe, people and language standing before the throne of God wearing white robes and worshipping our Redeemer. The prophet says of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. Not the decrease, the increase of his government and peace.

It will never end. And then there's that marvelous and mysterious passage we read earlier from Daniel 2 about the statue. Oh, the old king had a great dream and he was troubled by it. He couldn't figure it out, nor could his wise men.

God gave Daniel wisdom to know the dream and to know its interpretation. And it was a statue composed of different elements. And then there was the stone that struck the statue and destroyed the statue.

The statue crumbled like dominoes. And that statue represented four successive kingdoms beginning with the king's day, Babylon, then Persia, then Greece and then Rome, big, powerful, strong, seemingly invincible kingdoms until the stone came along, this rock. And if you were listening carefully, you notice something about the stone, very unique. It was not cut, not made by human hands, but instead this was God's stone. It was God's rock and represented the kingdom of God.

And Daniel even says, in those days the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed. And that stone, we read there, becomes a mountain. And not one little mountain, but a mountain that filled the whole earth. So you get the picture here, all the leaven was leavened and the little seed became the largest garden plant and the stone became a great mountain that filled the entire earth. The kingdom grows and keeps on growing because of secret power in the seed.

And one great day it will be a very substantial, significant, perhaps even gigantic kingdom. I know that once upon a time the kingdom seemed dead when Jesus was dead and buried. But he rose and he sent his spirit and the spirit sent the disciples and they spread the gospel. They went to Antioch and to Macedonia and Asia and even to Rome.

And it was great persecution, many martyrs, but the secret power was already unleashed on the world. And the gospel began to take root and Constantine, 4th century, declared Christianity to be the official religion of the empire. And from Constantine to Charlemagne it continued to spread throughout Western Europe. And from Charlemagne to Aquinas to Luther it spread into Germany and Norway and Iceland and Greenland. And along came a man named Calvin who had great influence in France and Switzerland and England and Scotland and even America. And more than one historian feels that John Calvin is the true founder of our country. And we established our forefathers as that city on the hill, as you know. And meanwhile the Moravians took the gospel to the West Indies and Hudson Taylor to China and David Livington to Africa and William Carey to India and others to different places and the kingdom grows. But you know what? I'm telling you names of people you know, somebodies, and I'm not doing justice to the nobodies that also spread the gospel.

It took that one little seed and sowed it and it had power. Somebody did that in your life and my life and that's why we're here now worshipping the Lord, even separated. You may be worshipping in your pajamas at home as I know some of you are.

And I may watch this service and enjoy my cinnamon toast as I have begun to do in recent weeks. You know, there are a few advantages to this virtual worship, are there not? But the point is we're all worshipping this great God because of that little seed that had secret power and the invention, God's invention, is making steady progress.

And believe you me friends, fret not. Let not your heart be troubled. Because a day is coming when this gigantic kingdom will be far more visible than it is today and the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ. And he will reign forever and ever and that little teeny tiny mustard seed will become a full grown tree of life, one on each side of the river of life, bringing forth its fruit every month of the year, its leaves being for the healing of the nations. Let's pray. Haste in the day, Lord, when your kingdom will come in fullness and power and glory and you'll remove every fear and anxiety that we have.

Haste in the day when every knee will bow before you and confess that Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In the meantime, give us confidence that this little seed is indeed the dynamite of God. So may we share it, may we sing it, may we preach it, regardless of those who think it's foolishness. Use it to make our ministry grow and to make your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Bless our infirmed and our sick.

We think in particular of Chris Dozier and her husband Don, Clela Ray and Wendy Beasley, Mike Stevens and Andy Burton, Arlene White, Ted Botter, Mary Beckett, a friend of many of us here, Joyce Davis and Edna Pearson as they mourn the loss of loved ones. Lord God, you know our needs before we call out to you and you've said that your grace is sufficient. So increase our faith and encourage us in the wonderful news we've considered this morning. Glorify yourself through nobodies like us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.