The Mustard Seed, the Leaven and You - Life of Christ Part 45

What's your favorite story about somebody who had a humble beginning and then made it big?

I mean everybody's kind of got a favorite one of those I think that they kind of cherish. One of my favorite is about a fellow who was born in 1931 in a little two-room unpainted house in Spavenaw, Oklahoma. Now he lived in a house that small because his dad worked in the mines and that's all his dad could afford. Later they moved to a place called White Bird, Oklahoma, big metropolis where the family of seven all lived in a two-bedroom house. They had no indoor plumbing, had no heat, no air conditioning, didn't even have a kitchen.

They cooked their food on an old wood stove which is the same stove they heated their bath water on. This is how this young man grew up. His dad had always dreamed of playing Major League Baseball but had been too poor and had never gotten the chance and when he had a little boy in 1931 he decided to dedicate himself to seeing that his boy got the chance that he never got. No matter how tired he was when he got home from the mines this dad would go out, he played ball with the boy, they played in old open fields, they played in barns if it was raining, they played in abandoned mine shafts, they played everywhere. One time when the boy broke his ankle and he got infected so badly that the doctors were talking about amputating it, his dad put his son in the car, drove him 175 miles to Oklahoma City to the Cripple Children's Center and there had him treated with the new wonder drug called penicillin and the infection cleared up.

They were able to save the leg. His dad slept in the car while his little boy was in the hospital because he didn't have any money for a hotel room and the reason they had to drive 175 miles to Oklahoma City was because they couldn't afford to put him in the hospital in town, they were broke. Now I don't suppose there was ever a more rags-to-riches story than the story of this fellow who went on to become one of the greatest Major League Baseball players of all time, really an American legend. Does anybody know who he is? Who is he? Mickey Mantle's his name, that's right.

Some of you must be from Spavinal, Oklahoma. The hometown boy made good. But anyway Mickey Mantle was his name.

I think everybody, if I said that name, knows exactly who I'm talking about. This is how the young man began and maybe you've got one of these stories that you kind of cherish about humble beginnings going on to big things but this is really what Jesus wants to talk to us about this morning. He wants to talk to us about humble beginnings bringing a big result but not a big baseball result, a big spiritual result. Let's look at it together right here in Luke chapter 13 verse 18. Then Jesus asked, what is the kingdom of God like?

What shall I compare it to? Now if you ask the average Jewish person in Jesus's day that question they would have had an answer. They would have said, well the kingdom of God is all about the Messiah coming in great glory and in great splendor and running the Romans out and taking over the world and setting up a majestic kingdom and they had good reason for looking at it that way. I mean in the Old Testament there are lots of prophecies in the Old Testament that talk about this kind of glorious consummation of the kingdom of the Messiah. The problem is that they failed to read the Old Testament carefully enough to see that there were two comings of the Messiah not just one. A first coming where he would come in humility to pay for the sins of the world on the cross and a second coming where he would come in the kind of glory and majesty that they were thinking about to set up the kingdom of God on earth. Now in between so far there's been what 1,900 years or so and who knows how many more there may be but the point is that Jesus's first coming was not going to meet the expectations most Jewish people had for this glorious kingdom. As a matter of fact when Jesus rose from the dead went back to heaven all he left behind was not some great kingdom of God he left behind a little tiny band of followers and he told them now you go out and assault the whole world for me. That's what he left behind. Now I don't know about you guys but if I was part of that little band of disciples I think I would have felt outmatched huh?

I mean what have I got I got no political power I've got no money I've got no army I've got no nothing and it's me against the world come on now. It's in response to that kind of thinking which the disciples had that Jesus tells these two parables. Two parables that are all about reassuring them and inspiring them by telling them hey fellas the impact of Christianity is going to be enormous don't worry about how we start just get out there and do what I told you to do. Now look at these parables the first one is verse 19 Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed which a man took and planted in his garden and it grew and became a tree and the birds of the air even came and perched in its branches. The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. Now let's do a little botany here okay the mustard plant if you want to want to know it's Synopus nigra is the Latin name the mustard plant was a very common plant in the ancient Near East everybody had one in their garden and they grew from little itsy bitsy little seeds I mean the seeds are so tiny they look like a little tiny speck of pepper on your finger that's all they are and yet you plant that tree Jesus said and that thing grows that seed and that thing grows into an enormous tree seven to fifteen feet most of them grow as a matter of fact a fellow named William Thompson who wrote a book called the land in the book because of his explorations of Palestine in the late 1800s said that he saw some of these mustard trees back then that had grown to 12 to 15 feet and people on horses rode under their branches that's a pretty big tree and it came from that little itsy bitsy teensy weensy little seed that Jesus said you put in the ground and he gets so big birds come and build their nests in this tree now what's the point what's the point of the parable well this parable is focusing on the outward success of Christianity what Jesus is saying is even though Christianity may start very tiny and small like a little mustard seed it's going to get enormous now did Christianity start really small like a mustard seed sure it did sure it did a baby born in a dirty old barn in an obscure part of the Roman Empire nobody ever heard of he never left Palestine he only had a public ministry for three years he made a few converts among the poor and the uneducated and the illiterate and then he died on a shameful cross leaving behind a motley crew of followers all of whom added together wouldn't total a mustard seed did Christianity start like that yes it did but how is Christianity ended up has it grown like a mustard tree in the parable of course it has the seed planted in Palestine by a carpenter and a few fishermen has become a tree that today reaches almost every corner of the globe do you know that almost one out of every three people in the world say that Christianity is their religion now that may not mean that they're all born again and they all have a personal relationship with Christ like we think of but one out of every three people in the world says Christianity is the religion that I choose in China alone there's between 25 and 50 million Christians and over 500,000 house churches and I don't have the time to talk to you about the phenomenal growth of Christianity in Korea in Indonesia in Africa all of the rest and world today is what it is because of the growth and the proliferation of Christianity friends it's not even done yet there's more growth to come the tree isn't finished growing because when Jesus Christ comes back whenever that's going to be at his second appearance he's gonna end up setting the kingdom God up and it's gonna take over the whole earth so did it start like a mustard seed yes has it grown like a huge tree uh-huh second parable and again Jesus said what shall I compare the kingdom of God to it's like yeast that a woman takes and shoves into a big old loaf of flour until the whole dough all of that dough has been worked through the kingdom of God Jesus said is like yeast that's a woman puts in a loaf of dough and for that matter a man thank you very much then you know a couple of years ago for Christmas we got a bread maker and I love my bread maker I love eating what comes down my bread maker and you know what I'm 45 now and I'd never seen bread made until we got this bread maker can you believe that you say well didn't your mother make homemade bread or homemade muffins or homemade rolls or homemade something I mean you had to see something made folks not my mother mm-hmm you know on Saturday night live coffee talk with Linda Richmond I'm getting for clempt that's my mother folks you know whoopee Goldberg's recipe for chicken soup and step one send the butler to the store for chicken that's my mother my mother didn't do windows she didn't cook she didn't clean house she didn't wash dishes she didn't make bread she played lots of Marjong and canasta thank you I mean we're talking real Jewish American princess here that I had that's the way it was in my house I never saw bread made are you kidding bread came from the store nobody made bread well the first time I ever saw it made I was 40 some years old and you know what was amazing to me is the incredible potency of yeast I mean you take this huge old lump of dough and put this little tiny bit of yeast in and boom thing goes off like an atom bomb inside this little loaf of bread and just works through the whole thing I mean I wanted to put a whole bunch of yeast in and Brenda kept saying don't do that don't do that put the whole packet in no no no she said don't do that you'll be sorry cuz I thought how can a little tiny bit handle a big piece of loaf like this but it does what does Jesus say the kingdom of God is like what yeast right stick it inside a big old lump of dough and it might disappear for a while and you may not see it for a while but it's not gone oh no it's not gone because all of a sudden that dough starts bubbling and boiling and moving and jumping and rising and going and from the inside out that dough completely changes because of the effect of that yeast now what's this parable talking about it's not talking about the outward growth of Christianity the first one did that this one is talking about the power of the gospel to change things from the inside you understand the mustard seed grew into a big tree okay Christianity is going to get big but the yeast went on the inside of the dough and change that dough from the inside out and this is talking about the fact that just like that yeast permeated and changed every molecule of that dough so the gospel of Jesus Christ when you thrust it into a society when you thrust it into a culture when you thrust it into a person's life goes to work on the inside and leaves no part of that society no part of that culture no part of that life untouched it Christian izes everything it touches leaving a culture a society or a person's life radically different than it found it and once again has history proven Jesus Christ to be right and what he said about the gospel yes it has Christianity started as a tiny little piece of leaven in Jerusalem a little piece of yeast and that leaven Jerusalem and then it leavened Palestine and then it leavened the Roman Empire and then it leavened the Emperor himself so that in 312 Constantine embraced Christianity and made it the religion of the Empire it leavened Europe it leavened North America now it's out leavening China and Africa and Indonesia and everywhere it goes friends so much of our art our music our law our education our government has all been leavened by the yeast of Christianity our concern for the suffering and the poor our desire to protect the rights of the oppressed I'm always amused when we go overseas and we tell countries that they need better human rights records what we don't understand is countries where the gospel has never been they don't care about human rights don't we understand that they don't care about human rights they humor us because they want our money they don't care about human rights why do we because Christianity has leavened this country and leavened our value system that's why our concepts of morality and ethics and decency our respect for authority the value of working hard and being industrious and everything we do every attitude of benevolence and kindness and compassion our respect for the sanctity of life these are all leavening effects of the message of Christianity on a society and a culture and if you don't believe me you just go look at those cultures that have been untouched by the yeast of Christianity and you see if they have any of those values they won't you know my boys I don't know about how your children are and if you've got children or maybe you're this way if you don't but my children want to walk out into any performance situation and be the very best the first time they walk out there they want to walk on the ball field hit four home runs first time they ever played baseball in their life they want to walk on a basketball court and score 85 points the first time they ever play basketball they want to go play piano and sit down for their first recital and play like Van Cliburn you know what I'm trying to say and I keep telling them fellas it doesn't matter how you start don't worry if you don't start big what matters is how you what finish uh-huh doesn't matter how you start what matters is how you finish and this is what Jesus is saying he's saying to his disciples guys don't worry about how you start does it worry us if we're starting small like a little mustard seed so what don't worry about it what matters is how we're gonna finish and we're gonna finish Jesus said by seeing Christianity's influence spread like a big old mustard tree all over the world so what if we start kind of imperceptibly like yeast that's hidden inside a dough don't worry about how we start what you need to know is the way we're gonna end is that we're gonna see Christianity penetrate and change the values of every place in the world that it goes now stop worrying about how we start and just get out there and share the gospel and I'll do the rest that's what this is all about now that's the end of our parables but of course it leaves us with the really important question doesn't it and you know what that is what is it so what yeah I mean long great history lesson love it glad to know Constantine became a Christian 312 gonna write that down when I get home really appreciate you telling me that so what what difference does this make well I think it makes a big difference because as I look at these parables I don't see them just as a prediction but as a promise you understand what I'm saying I want you to say that with me these parables are not just a prediction they're a you see long what are you talking about what I'm saying here is I believe that God's just not talking here about predicting the future Christianity but he's talking about giving us a promise about the power the transforming power that the message of Jesus Christ will have in people's lives just like yeast if we'll stick it in this is what it'll do it's a promise you know did you read about in the paper the bill that was introduced in the DC Council the other day to allow prayer in this public schools again y'all read about that you know the ACLU is all up in arms about it the Americans United for separation of church and state said it'll sue the District of Columbia if the bill passes and yet it looks like the bill has a pretty good chance of passing do you know who the sponsor of that bill was who was it Marion Barry Marion Barry you mean that dope smoking cocaine snort and womanizing arrogant life out of control ex jailbird that's him Marion Barry he sponsored a prayer in the public school bill yes he did you say I don't know Lon that's a does not compute as far as I'm concerned when I wait a minute wait a minute when they ask him about why he was doing this and whether he really thought that violence and drugs and the other problems being faced by the public schools in Washington DC whether he really thought this Christianity and prayer thing could really help or was he just doing it for political reasons did he really think it could help here's what Marion Barry said and I quote ready I am an example of how it works end of quote I am an example of how it works that's what Marion Barry said now look I don't know Marion Barry personally and I cannot verify for you whether or not he has a real and genuine personal relationship with Jesus Christ but he says he does he says he does and look as an outsider I'll tell you it sure looks like he's living a different lifestyle than he lived a few years ago and Marion Barry said you look at me I had a life that was completely out of control and when I was at my absolute worst somebody came along and took some of that yeast and stuck it into my life and that yeast went off and boiled and see then bubbled inside of me and look at me I'm a different person today I am an example of how it works that's what he said somebody took that yeast and stuck it into Chuck Colson's life too didn't they did it go off like a bomb buddy and what we have today in Chuck Colson is not the same man we had in the Nixon White House was it no and somebody took that yeast and stuck it into Dave Dravecki's life and somebody took that yeast and stuck it into James Dobson's life one day and somebody took that yeast and stuck it into Lee Atwater's life and they stuck it into an older man that you may not know since he's been dead for hundreds of years but his name was John Newton a slave trader somebody took the Word of God and stuck it into his life and he became a pastor and a songwriter and wrote Amazing Grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me I once was lost but somebody stuck yeast in me and look at me now not quite but that I don't think it rhymes but it's close that's the point and somebody took the yeast of the Word of God and stuck it in the lawn Solomon's life and I'll tell you brother and it leaven my brains out I got news for you and if you're here and you're a Christian today and you know Jesus Christ somebody came along and took the Word of God like yeast and shoved it into your life maybe it was your mother or your father or a brother or a sister or a husband or a wife or a friend at work or Sunday school teacher I don't know who it was but somebody took it and shoved it into your life and it maybe you didn't see it for a while maybe you didn't hear from it for a while but sooner or later that stuff started going and that's why you're sitting here this morning saying Jesus Christ is your personal Lord and Savior somebody put some yeast in your life now Lon are you saying that everybody we share the gospel with is going to give their life to Christ is that what you're saying no I can't make you that promise because the Bible doesn't but I will say this you put the yeast into people's lives and God will make sure it goes off they're gonna have to fight to say no they may say no but they're gonna have to fight to do it because the yeast works the yeast will do its job and you know our enemy Satan knows that he can't stop the power of the yeast it can't be done he can't turn off the power of the Word of God he can't turn off the power of the gospel of Christ in people's lives so he goes to the next tactic and the next tactic is to stop us as Christians from ever putting the yeast into people that's the only tactic he can use and he comes up with everything he can think of every trick in the book to concentrate his efforts on you and me as Christians to discourage us from injecting the yeast of the gospel message into people's lives he talks to us about peer pressure he makes us feel the fear of reprisal he makes us worried about our reputation he makes us worry about failing he makes us very sensitive to the idea of looking unsophisticated looking uncool or one of his favorite tactics is to try to convince us that the gospel is not gonna work anyway do you know a fella in that same article I was reading about Marion Barry a fella named James Caan from the spokesperson for Americans United for the Separation of Church and State they ought to get an acronym for that that's a mess to say but anyway here's what he said quote he said school prayer and religion are not the answer to social problems end of quote they're not the answer social well mr. Khan would you tell me what is money isn't welfare isn't government isn't work isn't programs aren't what is if you got all the answers pal and you know religion and prayer is not the answer then you tell me why America and schools everywhere around America since we take prayer out are such a mess look when I went to school the biggest thing we worried about was chewing bubblegum and smoking in the restroom that was only 30 years ago when I was in high school today you worry about getting shot in the public schools of America I mean maybe I'm stupid but I think when they took God and prayer out of the public schools the public schools didn't go up I think they went down and this is the way Satan works on us he says to us hey look nobody's interested in what Christianity has to say nobody wants to know about that I mean what is a bunch of Bible quotes and a bunch of Bible verses gonna do any way to handle the social problems of your life and the social problems of America don't give them a Bible verse don't give them a Bible quote they won't do any good is that true is that true when I listen think about what a Bible quote and a few Bible verses did for you what did they do for you huh didn't they lead you to Jesus Christ didn't they end up with you getting your sins forgiven then they bring you eternal life didn't they revolutionize the way you're living here on earth didn't they free you from the grip of sin in your life didn't they bring real meaning and purpose to your life didn't they restore hope and give you a reason to go on and a purpose for living that's what a few Bible verses and Bible quotes did in your life and if it did it in your life why should we think it won't do it in somebody else's life don't listen to those lies out there I'm telling you friends we need to believe what Jesus tells us that the gospel is like leaven you sticking in some dough and it's gonna go off Jesus said Isaiah 55 my word will not return to me empty but it will accomplish the purpose for which I sent it Hebrews chapter 4 the Word of God is living and active and more powerful than any two-edged sword it penetrates and judges the very thoughts and intents of people's hearts nothing is hidden from its sight God says you put the Word of God in somebody's life and it'll slice them open and filet them like a fish it'll go right down to the deepest part of their being and it'll lay them wide open Romans chapter 1 Paul said I am NOT ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it is the power of God that brings people to salvation now my question is whether you and I really believe that well do we really believe it so long well of course we do it's in the Bible no no no I didn't ask you is in the Bible I know it's in the Bible I ask you whether you really believe it what do you really believe it see I don't think most Christians really do because if we really believed it we wouldn't be so timid about sharing Christ with people because if we really believed it we wouldn't feel the need to always be trying to spruce up the simple message of the cross with all of our philosophy and all of our high-sounding education we just give it out the way it is if it's the power of God because if we really believed it was the power of God we wouldn't be so ashamed of the simple message of the cross I mean we treat the message of the gospel like it's a cap pistol when Jesus Christ says it's an atom bomb and I want to tell you friends the Word of God is the most potent force on the face of the earth you say I don't believe that oh yeah listen to me atom bombs nuclear energy and all the money in Washington can't change people's hearts only the gospel of Jesus Christ can I say that makes it the most powerful force on the face of the earth and we as Christians need to begin using it that way and you know what we look at the simple message of the gospel and we say well it's kind of simplistic line I mean it's you know I mean it's not real it's not real flowery it's not real philosophical so what the Bible says that to people who don't know Christ the gospel seems like foolishness but to those of us who know him it's the power of God and friend it may start small in a person's life but it won't stay that way not if you nurture it with prayer and love it won't stay that way it'll blow their life apart what's the bottom line for this morning I believe Jesus Christ wants us to have confidence in the power of the Word of God and it wants us to give it out with boldness with the assurance that we're injecting supernatural yeast into people's lives and that it's going to seed and bubble and boil and blow their lives apart now if you believe that my question to you is who is it that God wants you to inject with some yeast this week how about your children if you've got children I want to tell you something there is no more important injection you will ever make than the Word of God into your children because it may lie dormant for a while but brother I want to tell you it'll come back around you ought to be shooting them up with a load of that stuff every single day and maybe God wants you to shoot up with a load of that stuff some of your friends at work or somebody at school or the neighbor that you walk with or the people you go to the gym with or relatives or family members envision yourself kind of walking around with a big old hypodermic needle full of yeast and when you pass people just go like that you know that's all you're doing that's all you're doing and if they look at you like you're crazy just kind of smile and go you know we'll see how it works in a couple years here just hold on and we ought to be going everywhere we go kind of envisioning ourselves carrying that hypodermic over our shoulder and everybody we meet wanting to take the chance to kind of go right into those people now you may never see that yeast do its work they may move you may move you may go to heaven well who cares your jobs not to leaven people your jobs just to stick the yeast in the Word of God God will do the rest he's done it for thousands of years and he'll keep on doing it he did it to you he'll do it to other people my prayer is that God would make us less ashamed of the gospel and more confident in the power of it isn't that what Jesus said and we either believe him or we don't friends let me tell you something we will never reach a city for Jesus Christ if we keep the gospel inside this building that's not where was meant to stay it's meant to be out there in the marketplace and you know what Luther said Martin Luther he's dead too for a long time let me tell you what he said he said the gospel is like a lion in a cage he said you don't have to defend the lion in a cage all you have to do is open the gate and let him out true don't defend the gospel God didn't ask you to do that you don't need to do that just open the gate and let it out shoot it into people's lives and it'll go to work may God help us do that this week let's pray heavenly father I want to thank you for these parables parables that from my point of view are very uplifting and challenging and motivating because they make us understand the power of the Word of God and father I pray you would forgive us as Christians for denigrating the Word of God and its power for selling it short for being embarrassed and ashamed for listening to Satan's lies that nobody wants to hear this it won't make any difference what's a few Bible verses gonna do I pray Lord Jesus that you would take us this morning and give us a real good reality check and make us realize that it changed the lives of men like Chuck Colson and Marion Barry and many many others and our lives and it'll change others lives if we'll just give it out don't reinterpret it don't sugar coat it just give it out in love and Jesus Christ will change lives with spiritual yeast make us willing to do that Lord give us the courage to do that this week in the people that you bring across our path and we pray this in Jesus' name amen you